


Protection Instinct

by BabySpinach



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Clone Wars era, Found Family, Multi, unlikely allies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-07-11
Packaged: 2019-05-25 14:57:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 32,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14979599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BabySpinach/pseuds/BabySpinach
Summary: Jedi Knight Reza Ire is a former investigator and a current radical who is swept up in the Clone Wars against her beliefs and better judgement. Her actions during the conflict leave her disgraced, and temple bound until an enemy from her past resurfaces and starts killing Jedi. Reza is given a team of misfit ARC troopers to aid in her hunt for the assassin, but she soon learns that good soldiers can only follow orders if they’re given good ones.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my labor of love featuring my Star Wars OCs whose stories kept me company when I was working long hours at night at a very boring job. I wanted to tell a story about a Jedi who wasn't as down with the whole Clone Wars thing, because I like to think of the Jedi as a big order with a lot of different opinions among its members. I also just love the Clone Wars Era a lot. 
> 
> As for canon, I took stuff that I liked from the old stuff and the new stuff, so it's a little all over the place.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

“Jedi Knight Reza Ire.” Master Shaak Ti’s tone was usually warm, but was icy today.

Reza winced at her tone and tried not to sweat through her robes. She’d once been so careful to avoid council scrutiny and now all of them were staring at her. Well, everyone from the council who’d actually bothered to show up. Masters Ti, Gallia, and Windu were the only ones present. Windu and Galila were physically present while Ti holoed in from Kamino. 

Shaak Ti continued, tactfully ignoring Reza’s discomfort, “You may be under the impression that we convened here to discuss further punishment for your previous actions. That is only partially true.”

Reza tried not to look surprised and failed. She’d been confined to the temple for almost three weeks. With little to do but training, her screw up was all there was to think about. Maybe she’d finally have a chance to explain herself.

Gallia seemed to notice Reza’s optimism, because she frowned and said, “Don’t think that your rash decision making and disregard for the safety of others has escaped us. Three weeks temple confinement wouldn’t be the end of your ordeal under different circumstances.”

“I came here today ready to accept any punishment you saw fit,” Reza said, lowering her eyes before she said something stupid. It was true that she could have handled the situation better, but concern for others was her problem. It was all a matter of who the “others” were. But, if the Council hadn’t bought her side of the story the first three times, they wouldn’t now.

“Lucky for you, we’re in the middle of a war and are severely lacking competent leadership,” Windu said, his tone lighter than the other two. “We’re giving you General status so you can track someone down… and deal with them.”

Reza’s head snapped back up. “You want me to do my old job?”

Windu’s mouth tightened into what could have just been mistaken for a smile. “Exactly. We can’t deny your talents as an investigator, even with our doubts about your mental state.” He activated the hologram projector in front of him. “You also have unique experience with our query that the last Jedi we sent didn’t.”

The projector flickered to life, forming a face that momentarily froze Reza’s blood. She looked back to the three masters. “You think this is a good idea? You want me to hunt her when you already have concerns about my emotional stability?”

Shaak Ti raised a defensive hand. “Your past experience with her is precisely why we selected you. You surely recall how uniquely well you withstood her mind-breaking powers.”

“Of course, if you feel you’re not up to it…” Gallia chimed in.

“No, I can do it,” Reza responded quickly. She looked at the hologram version of the Nightsister Talis. The very same Talis that Reza narrowly escaped from a five years earlier. Reza’s mind raced. Talis had been underground for a long time. If she’d resurfaced there must be a big lure and one that the Jedi were concerned about. There was one thing that concerned the Jedi these days. “Talis is working for the separatist, isn’t she?” Reza asked the room at large. 

Windu nodded. “She’s been sabotaging key parts of our operation and extracting information from our agents, Jedi and otherwise, then disappears back into separatist space.” 

Reza winced, she knew first hand how pleasant that extraction process was. It was difficult to survive at all, let alone with all your memories in the right places. “You mentioned you sent someone before?”

The three sobered for a moment. When Gallia spoke, it was softly. “We sent Master Amori after her with a squad of ARC troopers. The squad was nearly destroyed. Amori’s mind was… broken… she died shortly after her rescue. That was two weeks ago.”

Reza bowed her head respectfully. Windu cut into her mourning moment immediately. “We’re transferring the remaining clones from her ARC unit to you along with all of the data Amori recovered. We need Talis taken care of.”

Reza felt her cheeks start to burn at the mention of the word clone. “With all due respect, Master Windu, I don’t need that support. As I’m sure you’re aware that Master Dhamiria and I explicitly avoided working with, well, clones. I need my own people who are treated like people.”

Shaak Ti’s eyes narrowed. “You and your former master’s objections to the use of our clone army are well document. That does not change the fact that you need Amori’s clones. They are quite capable.”

“I don’t doubt their capability-”

“Enough, General Ire,” Windu cut her off. “You can use as many of your old contacts as you want, but those troopers are yours to command. Understood?”

“Understood.” Reza conceded, a faint bitter taste in her mouth. “I’ll start my investigation right away. Thank you for this opportunity.” She bowed.  
Windu actually smiled. “Don’t make us regret our decision, Reza. You’re dismissed.”

As Reza exited the Council chamber, she wondered if this situation was really better than temple arrest. Talis had left a mark on her that almost ruined her career and took her sanity. No amount of meditation could keep her from making decisions colored by that. Add to that the fact the council seemed to be punishing her for her outspoken opposition to the clone army and this mission already seemed to be crashing down around her.

But she could already feel her restless mind calming as she started to focus on the hunt ahead. She was already starting to feel like her old self again.


	2. Chapter 2

Reza sat down at one of the archive tables in a secluded area of the library with Master Amori’s notes. Talis had been elusive, but Amori was smart. Reza remembered the Twi’lek woman from a case she and her master had worked back in her Padawan training. Amori had been organized, efficient, and one of the most Jedi-y Jedi Reza had ever met. Her own Master, Kalere Dhamiria had gotten along with her well dispite Dhamiria’s sometimes controversial opinions. Reza wondered if Kalere even knew her fellow Master was dead.

Amori’s logs tracked Talis through contested space. It was odd, Talis should have been moving through separatist or Hutt controlled space. There was no way Talis could move uncontested through Republic space by herself with the amount of resources she spontaneously appeared with. Amori seemed confounded by Talis always knowing where to be and where the Republic forces would not be. Amori’s logs left off on Talis’s home planet, Dathomir, which was odd. Talis was an outcast amongst her own people for reasons too horrible for Reza to guess at. What had changed?  
She poured over the log entries for hours, trying to find anything to clue in as to what the hunt was really like. What was Amori thinking? What were her men like? Unfortunately, Amori’s Jedi-ness made for a clinical read. 

It took her a read through to realize that the strange nicknames referred to the clones. She'd expected serial numbers, not nicknames like Second, Wings, and Jay. The hyper-serious Amori only called them by their nicknames which meant it was a common thing. Amori started with fifteen troopers, three squads. Reza watched them dwindle to one. She pushed the the data pads aside, mildly disgusted. Amori and Shaak Ti could call them by their nicknames and bond with them all they wanted. It didn’t change it was still an affront to free will to raise these men to die.   
Reza sighed deeply and stood to walk around. The council was truly testing her at this point. She needed advice. 

Master Dhamira picked up almost immediately. She looked tired but still smiled widely in greeting. “Temple confinement getting to you again, Reza?”

“The opposite problem this time, actually.” Reza leaned against the wall. “They’re letting me go, Kalere. But I can’t do what they’ve asked me to.”

Kalere inclined her head, smile disappearing. “I knew the Council would test you after your incident. How severe is it?”

“They’re sending me to hunt down Talis. It’s like they expect me to fail or die. I can’t keep my emotions out of this.”

“That’s a rather grim way to look at it.” Her brow furrowed in thought for a moment. “The only reason you’re getting this chance is because someone there believes in you. Most in your circumstances wouldn’t be given this chance. They’re either convinced you can do it or they have no other choice.”

“I don’t know which would be worse.”

Kalere winked smiled faintly. “I know the pain you experienced at Talis’s hands was unbearable, but I believe you can succeed. Going back to the case we gathered against Talis might give you inspiration, however painful. Remember your meditation, and remember what I taught you.” 

“Master, as if that was the end of it. I’m being given command of clone soldiers.”

“Oh.” Kalere’s face went blank in an instant. “That is troubling, Reza. You cannot be complicit in the atrocities of the Republic.”

Reza felt vindicated for the first time that day. “You’re preaching to the council here, but I don’t really have a choice.”

Kalere wasn’t paying attention anymore. Someone out of sight was talking to her. She glanced back at Reza, “Sorry, I have to go. Be safe and may the Force be with you.” The connection went dead.

Reza shoved the comm back in her pocket and tried to calm her heart. At least her Master was on her side. It was both nice to have a fellow Jedi on her side, and troubling to see how the order had become divided. Would this war really strip even Jedi of their decency?

She returned to the archive hall and gathered all the relevant data pads. She asked an archivist to pull any records from her own investigation of Talis from five years ago. She hastily shoved them in her bag without so much as a glance and returned to her quarters to meditate and prepare for her journey.


	3. Chapter 3

The ride out to Dathomir space was painful. Reza was itching to get back into the field and it was hard not to be weighted down by the tired misery of the people around her. This war had only been on for a few months, but it was already taking its toll. 

An officer greeted her almost immediately upon arrival aboard the massive cruiser. “General Ire, forgive the disorder here, we’ve just returned from a border skirmish.”

The large hanger they were standing in was scattered with broken parts and showed burn marks here and there. Reza saw troopers everywhere, making repairs or cleaning up. “Did my men participate?”

“No, we were ordered to keep them fresh for your mission, not that they were happy about it.” The officer smiled, “You know Widow squadron.”

Reza didn’t know them, but she nodded to the officer anyway. “I’d very much like to see them as soon as possible.”

“Of course, General, I alerted them to your arrival. They're waiting in the briefing room on level 15.”

“Have the others I requested arrived yet?”

The officer wrinkled her nose, which Reza chose to ignore. “Yes, the two… civilian contractors arrived a few hours ago. I believe they are resting.”

Reza smiled, most people had that reaction to her associates. She bowed to the officer, “Thank you, I’ll also require a landing ship to be prepped, I’d like to go to the surface as soon as possible.”

“Of… course, General.” The officer paled at that request. Reza didn’t blame her, Dathomir was the last place most people wanted to be.

Reza straightened her clothes and checked her braid in the reflective surface of the lift. Vanity was not a Jedi quality, but Reza new first impressions mattered. If her men saw her as sloppy they’d be less likely to respect her.

She hardly ever focused on her appearance, but her face read like a resume of her work as an investigator. Bright green eyes glared back at her, framed by angular eyebrows.

The shaved right half of her head revealed faint white scars from when a Hutt crime boss had put her head through a glass table. They stood out more against her brown skin then they would have on a pale person, but she liked to show them off. The thick black braid on the left covered her mangled ear, a parting gift from a mandalorian merc who’d stabbed her in the head two years earlier. Her thin lips were interrupted on the right side by a long scar that ran onto her cheek. She didn’t even remember getting that one. Her left cheek held the faint blemished memory of sun damage from a stakeout on a remote desert planet.

Her body as a whole showed more damage that most Jedi. It was a testament to the variation in the order. She’d been scrapping with slavers and serial killers since her first day as a padawan. All that time with the worst of the galaxy made it hard to adjust to the ideals of the Jedi sometimes. It got her and her master reprimanded more than once.

Reza exited the lift and entered the briefing room as purposefully as possible. Five men sat around the table. Five sets of eyes in nearly identical faces snapped to her. Reza felt the slight discomfort she always got when meeting clones. Thinking of them like droids was wrong, but her brain caught on the uniformity. No wonder it was easy for some to see them as expendable. 

The man sitting closest to the door stood immediately followed by the others. He had longer hair than the rest that was tied in a knot at the back of his head. The left side of his face was covered a large burn scar that extended fingers across his face. Reza looked at them for a moment before she remembered that she was a commanding officer. 

“At ease,” she said stiffly. It sounded harsh, but it was hard not to overcompensate. This was so far out of her depth.  
All but the one she was trying not to think of as a “try hard,” sat.

“General Ire,” The standing man addressed her, his face blank. “Welcome.”

She bowed to the room at large. “Widow squadron. My condolences on your losses.”

“Thank you, General.” The standing man’s tone was polite, but his eyes narrowed. “I’m ARC-3303 and-”

Reza raised a hand to silence him. “Look, I’ve read Amori’s personal logs. I know you don’t actually use those designations.” She’d been sent a roster of their designations but hadn’t even opened it. “What do you call each other?”

“That’s more like it!” The man sitting to the left of the speaker chinmed in. He had blonde hair, short on the sides, long on the top and a pair of wings tattooed on his neck. He’d been sitting with his legs propped up on the table when she’d entered. “I’m Wings, this is Tie, Jay, and Gale.” He motioned to the three other men sitting. “The one standing up is Captain Second, he does most of the talking because he’s the best at not mouthing off.”

Second turned on Wings. “What did I say about keeping your mouth shut?” He turned back to Reza, “I’m sorry for that, General.”

She looked between them. This was it, they were testing her. Waiting on her to set the tone. And everyone always said clone troopers were naturally loyal. 

Reza smoothly sat down in one of the empty seats. “Second, Wings, Tie, Jay, Gale,” she said, gesturing to each man as she went down the line. “Got it.” She couldn't keep her mouth from turning up at the corners, impressed.

Second took a seat and glanced over at Wings, in non-verbal communication. All five men looked at her expectantly. 

“Listen,” she started. “I know you’re probably wondering why you got assigned to some Jedi Knight you’ve never heard of after Amori, but I used to be an investigator. I am going to track Talis down and stop her, and I’m going to do it with the least risk possible. That means no stunts, am I understood.”

“Yes General,” four voices chorused, although she could have sworn Wings rolled his eyes. One man, the one who Wings identified as Jay, didn’t speak. He kept his eyes locked on the edge of the table. His dark hair was buzzed and he had a number of nasty scars all over his face as if he’d be cut by glass. 

Reza took out two data pads and slid them over to Captain Second. “Not to rush you, but we need to get started right away. Talis is slippery, any time we give her is time lost. Although I’m sure you know that.” She projected a holo of the leader of the Nightsisters. Her rather intimidating form flickered in the blue light. “Amori never indicated that she payed Mother Talzin a visit. Is that correct?”

“Yes, General,” Second spoke up. “She thought it was unnecessary, seeing as Talis was in exile from her people.”  
“That’s true, but if Talis was on the planet, Mother Talzin knows what she was doing there.” She looked at Second’s wrinkled brow. “I’ve dealt with her before. I’m taking my girls down to planetside, I understand if you’d rather not come.”

A ripple ran through the room. “You can’t go without us!” piped up Tie. He was the only one of the group with no scars or tattoos. He also wore the classic trooper buzz cut where the rest of the group had deviated. “It’s our job to look after you.” 

“You’re here to support me, I’m a Jedi, I don’t exactly need protection,” Reza said, taken aback. 

“Tell that to our last two generals,” Gale’s voice rumbled, lower than the others. It matched his rather intimidating appearance with his shaved head and elaborate tattoo that looked like a tree sprouting from his neck and extending branches across his bald head.

It was deadly quiet in the room. Reza subconsciously took a breath to respond. 

The door to the briefing room suddenly slid open and sucked all of the tension out of the room. Strong arms closed around Reza’s neck in a strange embrace.

“There’s my little Jedi!”

Reza disentangled herself from the arms and turned around. “Widow squadron, meet my girls. They’re serving as civilian contractors, helping us in our hunt. I trust them with my life, and I hope you will all feel the same way in time. ” Her friends beamed at her expectantly. “The Togruta is Daalh and the Nautolan is Laylan.” Reza in turn introduced the men. Wings hastily removed his feet from the table and tried to straighten up.  
Laylan frowned. “Are we interrupting something.”

“Not at all,” Reza said quickly. “You’re dismissed. We’ll leave for planetside in two hours.”

She bowed and beat a hasty retreat out of the room followed by her two friends. Once they were in the lift, Reza sighed and leaned back against the wall. “It’s wonderful to see both of you again, though I wish we’d get together under better circumstances. 

Daalh snorted. “Reza, you and I met after that wastoid Hutt put you through a table, I don’t expect to see you in better circumstances.”

“Besides,” Laylan added. “We saw you a year ago at the wedding. That was nice! Wasn’t it, dear?”

Reza grinned, already feeling more confident. “I managed to resist the urge to arrest any of your shadier friends during the ceremony so I would say it was a success.” 

The three friends laughed. Laylan playfully smacked her arm. “Hey, we’re legitimate business people now.”

“Legit enough for the Republic payroll at least,” Daalh added. 

Reza knew Daalh was putting on. The couple had been eager to help on this case when they usually wouldn’t get out of bed for anything other than a few thousand credits. The Republic was their home as well as their business. They had more reason than most people on the cruiser to thwart the separatists. 

The two followed her off the lift towards the landing ship they’d be assigned. Daalh looked around at sea of almost identical men. “So what’s with the clone thing? I thought you didn’t do clones.”

“Unfortunately, I’m in no position to follow my own beliefs after what I did.”

“I’m not sure what you did even warranted what punishment you got, little Jedi.”

Reza stepped onto the small ship and looked around. She sure wasn’t going to fly this thing. “Daalh, you know you don’t understand most of the reasons I get in trouble.”

Laylan giggled. “Maybe if you stopped getting in so much trouble, we wouldn’t have to understand.” Reza shot a side eyed look at her as she innocently started checking the systems.

Daalh leaned against the ship’s metal. In the dim light she cut an imposing figure. Her pure white skin and large montrals stood out in any crowd almost as much as her muscular physique and over two meters in height. It served her well when she moonlighted as a bodyguard to gather information for her main business in secrets. 

Her wife complimented her perfectly. Laylan was slim and a shade of blue that seemed to melt into the shadows. Her tendrils were loosely bound with a leather thong and occasionally moved as she reached over control panels. Her unassuming figure made her the perfect cat burglar. This was all before they met Reza, of course, and before they met each other. 

Daalh was staring at her intently. “You should be careful, Reza. I don’t trust anything made or grown in a lab and you shouldn’t either.”

“You don’t trust anything love,” Laylan shot back. “I thought they seemed like nice boys.”


	4. Chapter 4

Wings landed the craft expertly through the thick fog on Dathomir’s surface. He’d refused to let anyone else fly saying, “My name’s Wings, General, it’s what I do.” He chatted with Laylan in the passenger's seat about what landing ships did the best in high updraft. 

Dathomir looked foreboding even in the middle of it’s day cycle. Thick fog rolled rolled over dark ground and red trees. Reza remembered the last time she was here, she’d stayed out of the Nightsisters’ lair and let older, more experienced Jedi. The delicacy required when talking to a rather reclusive people was beyond her younger self.

Reza looked around the small craft at her men. They looked impressive in full armor. The ARC armor was different than the other clone armor she’d seen. It had cloth on the legs as well as pauldrons on both shoulders. Second’s was colored red, she assumed for his rank, where the others wore blue. Almost all of them had personalized armor. Second was closest to her, and she could make out a red Jedi insignia on his chest along with two red x’s, one on each side of his helmet which he had clipped to his belt.

Reza shuttered at the the thought that he’d put the Jedi symbol there himself, as if he was proud that the Jedi owned him. Second saw her looking and frowned. Reza scolded herself for letting her focus wander.

She closed her eyes and focused, letting herself fall back into the Force. Several faint dark presences flitted towards their location. They were dwarfed by a larger dark presence a ways off in the Nightsisters’ temple. She opened her eyes and looked around, “They already know we’re here.”

Tie nudged Gale and whispered excitedly. “You see that? She did the Jedi thing too.”

Reza looked down at Wings who touched two fingers to his head and scrunched up his eyes in imitation of of someone in deep Force focus. She swallowed a smile and straightened up to address the crowd. 

“We’re just here to talk. Keep your weapons down and stay with the ship. I’m taking Daalh and Laylan in with me. They don’t really like males.”

Second stepped forward. “Forgive me, general, I understand that you don’t know us yet, but we’re here to help you.”  
“We’re ARC troopers, not valets, General,” Gale chimed in.

Reza looked from face to face, they looked restless. It occurred to her that they’d been trapped inside a cruiser since the death of Amori. They were as cooped up as she’d been in the temple. She also admitted to herself that she probably hadn’t made the best impression as a general. 

“We can’t all go in in full armor and all, that’s too much of a threat,” Reza said, raising her eyebrows. “But I would feel better having someone wearing some coverage at my back. Captain, you’re with us, but keep your helmet off and your blaster down.”

Second nodded. “Yes, General.”

“If it’s all the same to you, Reza, if he’s going I’m staying here with the rest of the boys,” Laylan said brightly. “I hate witches.”

Reza, Second, and Daalh disembarked and started in the direction of the looming temple. Daalh cocked her head, listening with the superior hearing her montrails granted her, hand lingering on her blaster. “They’re all around us,” she said, her voice artificially cheerful. 

“I know, relax.” Reza fixed her gaze straight ahead. She heard the clack of Second shifting uncomfortably behind her.

Suddenly, they were surrounded. The red wrapped Nightsisters appeared out of the fog silently, brandishing weapons. Daalh sucked in breath and Second exhaled slowly behind her. She didn’t here either blasters move which was a good sign. Reza kept her stance neutral and her face blank as she stared into the eyes of the Nightsister in front of her. 

“Drop your weapons,” the strange woman hissed. Reza held a hand out as she dropped her lightsaber on the ground. Two blasters joined it and a sister snatched them up quickly. The Nightsister in front of her watched the weapons be collected. “What do you want, Jedi?”

“I’m here to speak to Mother Talzin about your former sister, Talis,” she replied calmly. 

A murmur rose from the gathered crowd. The sister in front of her spat. “We do not speak of her here. You will not find her here.”

“Let them in, sisters.” A voice like nothing she’d ever heard rang out through the clearing. It was perfectly normal on the surface, but a deep, scratchy sub-vocal ran underneath it. Mother Talzin descended the steps, tall and clothed in a red robe that flowed on its own. Even with all of her Jedi training and experience with darkness, Reza still felt her blood run cold for a moment. She couldn’t imagine how the others were doing. 

Mother Talzin turned and walked back into the temple. “Come, Jedi.”

Reza walked forward, looking back to make sure her companions followed, and entered the temple. She fell into step with Talzin glancing at the massive glowing structures lining the walkway. This wasn’t a temple, it was a city.  
The presence of the darkside was overwhelming here. It felt like a bantha sitting on her chest. Reza had a certain level of respect for the Nightsisters, they were able to live with this much dark energy and yet they did not seem to be slaves to their hatred like the Sith were.

Talzin didn’t so much as look at her. Reza spoke with care, “Thank you for seeing us, Mother.” 

“We can dispense with the pleasantries, Jedi. You know we do not wish to draw the attention of outsiders here.”

Reza nodded. “Hopefully our meeting here will be brief, then.” 

The group approached a central chamber with stone chairs and a table. The room had no lights, the only illumination came from the glowing liquid that flowed through the city as a whole. The shadows the bizarre light cast on Mother Talzin’s face only made her look more intimidating. She sat and gestured to two seats beside her. Talzin gave Second a rather disgusted look as he stood behind Reza’s chair. “Your pet is welcome to stay so long as it behaves itself.”  
Reza didn’t need the Force to sense the tension coming from the man behind her. She smiled sweetly. “Captain Second understands the situation, he is only here for my peace of mind.”

“Very well,” she said, leaning back in her seat, “I’m going to tell you the same thing I told the Jedi who came here cycles ago looking for Talis, she is a traitor to our people and we have nothing to do with her.”

Reza leaned in, trying to get a read. “She was on this planet recently, surely you know why.”

“I do not know every little thing that happens on our vast planet. If she was here, she did not come to the temple.”

“We can assure you she was here, a Jedi master who was in pursuit of her was murdered by a Dathomirian woman here not long ago,” Reza said carefully. 

Talzin narrowed her eyes. “What are you implying, Jedi.”

“If you are unsure that Talis was here at all, then maybe we need to look at other suspects.” She turned to address Second. “You were there, Captain. Are are you sure the murderer was Talis and not another female Dathomirian?”

He met Reza’s eye, a brief look of comprehension dawning on him. “It’s, uh, hard to say, General, it was dark and we’re not to familiar with these people.”

Daalh sighed next to her. “I hate to say it, General, but we might have to advise the Council to launch a full scale investigation here.”

“You’re right, if there are anti-Jedi interests on this planet, it needs to be investigated.” Reza turned innocent eyes on Talzin. “This could regretfully be more long term than I initially thought, Mother.” 

Talzin’s mouth drew into a hard line as she mentally weighed her options. After a moment, she beckoned a sister over and murmured something to her behind her hand. She turned back to Reza. “Very well, I’ve sent my people to… ask questions, on the condition that you will not take any of our people into custody.”

They were protecting someone. Reza kept her face blank. “Oh course, Mother, we obviously do not need another conflict on our hands.” 

Not that the three of them could take a Nightsister into custody if they wanted to. Their magics were particularly powerful on this planet. Reza sincerely hoped the Nightsisters would remain neutral in the galactic conflict.  
After a few minutes, too short of a time for an actual search to take place, the one Talzin had sent reappeared with another red draped sister. She looked nervous and haunted. Talzin rose and glided over to the two. She took the nervous sister’s chin in one hand and jerked it upwards so she was looking Reza in the face. The sister flinched and shook.

“Tell the Jedi what you know, sister,” Talzin practically growled.

“Yes… Mother…” she began, shakily. “Talis approached me for help stealing some of our water of life. She wanted to become more powerful. I… helped her take some in exchange for passage to Qumeria. I was… wrong.”

Talzin stroked the sister’s face, and then slapped her to the ground. Reza gasped and moved to stand. Daalh’s hand shot out lightning fast, pushing Reza back down into her seat. 

“This isn’t our business, little Jedi,” Daalh murmured out of the side of her mouth. Reza nodded and slowly settled. Second remained impassive behind her.

Talzin sat down as two silent sister’s dragged the traitor away. “It seems that Talis has been attempting to sway others into betraying us. The lure of fortune often clouds our young sister’s judgement.” She motioned for an attendant holding a bowl of the glowing green liquid to place it in front of her. “I can use my magic to seek Talis’s location, as a gesture of good faith to the Jedi.”

“Thank you, Mother,” Reza replied, already calm again. 

Talzin swirled her hands over the liquid. Even the poor light in the room seemed to dim as she thundered an incantation. Behind her, she heard Second gasp and felt his hand go to her chair back. Daalh leaned in, fascinated but shaking. Reza poured every ounce of her Jedi training into remaining calm and unimpressed. The ritual was like nothing she’d ever seen. 

An image of the planet Quermia appeared in the swirling mist. The image turned into a large city and then focused on one face out of the crowd. Talis turned quickly as if she felt their presence. She looked directly at them and snarled. 

The room returned to normal and Talzin sat back, a smug look on her face. “She is on Quermia.”

Reza rose and bowed. “The Jedi order thanks you for your cooperation.” 

“Hopefully this will be the last the contact we have with the Jedi order for a long time,” Talzin said with a terrible smile.

The sisters returned their weapons at the mouth of the temple. Reza flipped her saber in the air once, deftly catching it and returning it to her belt. She looked over to Daalh who kissed her blaster and returned it to her back. Reza beamed at her friend as they started off. “You almost killed me when you called me ‘general’ in there.”

“Don’t get used to it, my little Jedi.” She reached over and flicked Reza’s braid. “I almost started laughing at your whole good cop routine.”

“Just like old times, right, Daalh?”

“Not really, we weren’t ever good cop and bad cop, just bad cop and worse cop. At least the new guy caught on, way to go.” Both turned back to where Second was walking and stopped abruptly. He was looking down at the ground with a death grip on his blaster. Reza sensed that he was shaking ever so slightly. 

“Second, are you alright?” she asked, taking a step closer to him. 

He snapped to attention and looked just over her shoulder. “Yes, General, I’m fine.” His eyes glazed over for a moment. “That was just…” 

Reza took another step and reached a hand out towards him. “If you need a minute we can stop. The Nightsisters aren’t easy to process.” 

The haze passed and he was impassive again. “I’m just fine, General, my apologies,” he said coldly brushing past her outstretched hand and walking ahead of the group.

Reza looked over at Daalh who shrugged. Reza felt a little put out. Anger and something else, sadness maybe, radiated from Second. It wasn’t like she expected them to trust her right off of the bat, but it seemed like she was starting off at a disadvantage with him in particular. She stared at the back of his neck, trying to work out what exactly he was thinking all the way back to the landing ship.

Laylan was sitting cross legged on the open hatch, talking animatedly while the remaining members of Widow squad stood around her in various states of attention. Gale and Tie had their helmets on and were holding their blasters across their body. Reza had a better view of their armor outside of the close confines of the ship. Gale’s helmet had the same tree as his tattoo painted on his helmet. This one was green and was blooming with small red flowers. Tie had no unique markings, his armor just as uniform as the man below. He seemed to be intently listening to Laylan. 

Jay was leaning against the body of the ship, checking his blaster, helmet off and resting on the ground. His helmet, chest and arm guards were covered in tally marks. Wings was lounging right next to Laylan, laughing. He had a the outline of some avian animal painted on the side of his helmet, which he was using as an armrest. 

Laylan’s voice rang out through the forest, “So Reza drops this guy on his ass and says ‘You’re right, I can’t harm an unarmed being, but she can,’ and Daalh shot him in the leg!” 

Wings and Tie burst into fits of laughter. Jay smiled a little bit. Reza sighed, that was one story of her exploits that probably shouldn’t get out if she wanted anyone to respect her as a Jedi.

“General, Captain, you’re back,” Gale rumbled a little louder than necessary. All of Widow squadron snapped to attention.

“How’d it go?” Laylan asked, rising. 

“We know she’s on Quermia, Thama city, so that’s where we’re headed,” Reza informed the group as they boarded. “With any luck, we’ll catch her there, but it won’t be easy. Is everyone ready for a fight?” 

Widow squadron brightened up. “Yes, General!”


	5. Chapter 5

The Nu-Class attack shuttle that they were provided with was small but was the only thing the cruiser could spare since they were being re-deployed to a blockade near Ryloth. 

“Don’t worry, General,” he said, smoothing back his hair and settling into the pilot’s seat like it was made for him. “Smoothest ride of your life, I promise.”

Reza smiled at him. “I’m used to flying with overly competent Jedi pilots, Wings, and I’m sure you’re smoother than they are.”  
“Our first General, Vitran was a pretty good pilot, and Amori wasn’t terrible. Do all Jedi fly?”

Reza pursed her lips, remembering her own master forcing her into the pilot’s chair when they were on a mission. These lessons usually ended in tears.

“Each Jedi has a unique skill set and mine does not include flying anything larger than a speeder,” Reza said diplomatically.   
“That’s all well and good for me, General. I hate back seat flying and the other generals were repeat offenders.” 

Daalh and Laylan retreated to the comm station to dig up whatever contacts they could on Quermia. Reza moved to one of the seats in the back of the cabin and left a message for Master Windu about her progress. When she turned back, Wings and Second were arguing quietly. Wings gestured with his thumb back at her. Reza stood and moved closer. Jay, who was sitting across from her, glanced up but made no move to stop her. 

“I don’t know, Second, maybe you’re wrong about her. That whole ‘I don’t need your help’ thing is just normal Jedi behavior,” Wings said flippantly.

Second grunted. “You know I want to trust her as much as you do, but I can’t. You saw her history.”  
Reza’s folded her arms. “Is there a problem?”

Both men’s heads snapped around to look at her. Reza kept her face carefully blank. Wings looked over at Second. “No, you’re handling this one, brother.”

“It’s nothing, General.” Second shut down almost immediately. His face went blank like it had on Dathomir.

“Captain, if you have concerns about my leadership, I want to hear them. I’m an adult, I can handle it.”

He looked up at her, a flash of anger in his eyes. “We obviously weren’t told much about you, but I persuaded an admiral to look up your record.” 

Reza stiffened, realizing how that would look as he continued. “With all do respect General, you served under a notoriously anti-clone Jedi. It’s not a secret that she won’t even work with us. On top of that, you also spent the last thirty rotations suspended after being involved in a botched operation with high trooper casualties. Forgive me for not trusting you more, Sir.”

It felt like a slap. All of their eyes were on her. Even Wings, who’d defended her earlier grimaced. Her face grew warm under the pressure. How could they understand what she did?

“I chose to serve with Master Kalere Dhamiria because I had an ethical objection to the use of clo-” she caught herself, “the use of troopers.”

They stared each other down. Second frowned. “An ethical objection to clones?”

This conversation was going downhill quickly. “Yes! We didn’t give you a choice, you were just made to fight our ridiculous war.”

“Don’t lecture me about the choices I’ve made.” He was almost yelling. She watched him check himself, obviously surprised by his own anger. She sensed some fear from him. He clearly wasn’t supposed to talk back like that. “Sorry, General, I just need to know you won’t risk our lives needlessly.”

She felt frustration, fatigue, and regret all at once as she looked into his dark eyes. She paused for a moment to center herself, before speaking deliberately, “Never, okay?”

The silence that filled the shuttle was uncomfortable. Wings shrugged. “Well, I believe you, General.”

Laylan waltzed into the room and stopped, sensing the tension. “Uh, Reza, we have accommodations set up if you want to look.”   
“Thank you Laylan, but I need to meditate for a moment.” 

Reza brushed out of the room to the weapons to the empty weapons gallery, feeling Second’s eyes on her back all the way out.


	6. Chapter 6

Quermia was a major trade hub for the galaxy, and the city of Thama reflected that. Metal towers shot out of the rocky ground for miles in every direction. 

The war hadn’t come to Quermia yet, but Reza could tell that Republic influence was strained as she stepped off of the ship. The Republic allied base in Thama was a small shipyard attached to a warehouse. A nervous Quermian assured them their materials were in good hands while trying to rush them off the base as quickly as possible.

Daalh leaned in as they walked. “Your escort kind of rule out undercover work, little Jedi.”

“I don’t think we’ve ever been good at the whole undercover thing anyway,” Reza replied, looking down at her saber.

Their accommodations turned out to be a small administrative compound in the south part of the city. It was one of the few noticeable examples of anything resembling law and order in the city. The harried looking official kept looking between Reza’s visible lightsaber hilt and the troopers, whose armor stuck out like a sore thumb. She was grateful for the privacy of their rooms. They all crammed awkwardly into one of the small conference rooms. 

“Still beats the barracks,” Tie said, optimistically. Out of armor they wore the same black shirt and pants, not as tight as the body gloves, but fitted enough to be practical. 

“What’s the plan, Reza?” Daalh asked. 

“We don’t know what we’re up against here. I’m guessing she has a base here, but we can’t be sure. We do know her powers are amped up from that water of life, which will make our job just so much easier. Our main priority right now is reconnaissance.” The men looked uncomfortably at each other. Reza sighed. “I know covert urban ops probably weren’t part of your basic training, but we’ll have to make do.”

“Permission to make a suggestion, General.” Everyone’s eyes went to the back of the room, surprised. Reza had never heard Jay speak before. Even the others looked surprised.

“Uh, granted. What’s on your mind Jay?”

He looked around nervously. “Well, if we’re already going to be visible, why not use it to our advantage? Like a distraction or something.”  
Laylan nodded and began furiously typing on a datapad. “Ooh, that’s good. Talis would probably be interested in Republic movement in this area. She probably knows we’re here already.” She beamed at Jay. “You should talk more often.” He ducked his head, but seemed pleased.

Reza’s brain was already shifting into drive. Long term strategy had never been her thing, but she could do decoys. “Daalh, you said you still have contacts here? We should feed them some false information about me.”

“Can do, little Jedi. What should I say?”

“Nothing too concrete, we don’t want to tip her off to the trap. Say I’m here for intel on smugglers or something.”

“I have access to the security network in the city and I can slice anything private. We can track her through the city back to her base once you draw her out,” Laylan said, still working furiously on her datapad.

Tie perked up. “I can help with the surveillance. I used to be security back on Coruscant, and I picked up some amature slicing experience. Don’t hold that against me, General.” 

Reza raised her eyebrows. She’d expected ARC troopers to be a little more specialized than the normal troopers, but these men were full of surprises. 

“So, here’s the plan,” she started. The days where it was just her and maybe her friend Lusha or Master Kalere rushing into danger on their own were a distant memory. These people expected her to lead, not react. “Daalh will put out information that I’ll be making a deal with someone at a popular night club. We’ll go in there, make a big show of being a Jedi hot-shot and her troopers. When Talis shows up, we lead her into a back alley, and I’ll deal with her if I can and slow her down if I can’t.

“While that’s happening, Laylan, Daalh, and Tie should retrace her steps back to her base.Wings, I want you to take the shuttle and circle the city in case either group needs to get out fast. Gale, Second, and Jay, you’ll come with me as bait. Does that track?” 

Six heads nodded. The feelings radiating from her men had changed from unsure to excited as a whole. The only negative energy in the room came from her captain. It occurred to her that while she was always ready to play the role of bait, a captain who’d just lost most of his men would probably be hesitant to walk them directly into unknown danger. 

Reza locked eyes with Second. He didn’t look away. She spoke slowly, “Listen, you’re here to watch my back. I don’t expect you to engage directly with her. I promised that I wouldn’t take unnecessary risks with your lives, and I don’t intend to. It’s more than likely that we won’t get her on this run so don’t try. Stay out of her reach and let the intel team get what they need.”

They held each other's gaze for a beat. Reza realized that the others were watching this exchange as well. She was the General, but he was their brother. Finally, he gave a short nod. “It’s a solid plan, General.”

Reza felt equal parts relieved by his approval and frustration that this was a step she had to go through. She dismissed all of them and went to her quarters to prepare. She’d have to face the monster that tortured her and took her partner’s life in mere hours. She set her chrono piece and sat cross legged on the bed. After a deep breath she let herself sink down into the Force. 

 

Reza emerged from her meditation feeling no more relaxed and clear headed than she’d been before the whole mission started. She wandered into the next room, looking for a ration pack. Laylan and Tie were staring intently at five holo screens, each displaying a number of feeds. Reza had a dim recollection of doing the same with her master Kalere in her Padawan days. Most of those ended in a lecture about the benefits of patience.

She dug into the ration pack with two fingers and walked behind them. “Find anything?”

Both jumped and turned to look at her. Tie attempted to stand and say “General,” at the same time but only managed to bang his head on one of the screens. 

“How do you always move so quietly?” Laylan asked, clearly cross. 

Reza wiggled ration dust coded fingers at her. “Jedi stuff.”

“Because Lusha’s not here to reprimand your flippant use of the Force, I will,” Laylan huffed.

Reza’s stomach dropped at the mention of Lusha’s name. Laylan noticed and attempted to backtrack immediately. “Oh Reza, I’m so sorry, I forgot. You are still wearing that earring he gave you though.”

Reza’s hand shot up to the pendant hanging from her good ear. “It’s complicated.”

“Who’s Lusha?” Tie asked. Reza and Laylan turned to look at him and he smiled sheepishly. “Was that out of line?”

Reza folded her arms. “Maybe you should have started going by ‘nosy’ instead of Tie.”

“Well, I’d be lying if I said being nosy wasn’t most of the reason I got transferred from my old post.”

“What’s with the nicknames anyway?” Reza asked, changing the subject. 

He looked at her, surprised and a little guarded. “They are easier for our commanding officers to remember than numbers.”

“Okay,” Reza responded. The answer sounded pretty rote. Anyone with any ties to droids or clearance codes could remember numbers. He was holding something back. She tried a different angle. “Why do they call you Tie?”

He brightened instantly. “I’ve had mine since I was little, like Second. One of the merc instructors who taught us tactics gave it to me.” 

Reza struggled to understand. The nicknames were given, not chosen. Tie rambled on, “We were trained to keep ourselves and our area’s clean but I took it to a whole new level. I was always bugging my teammates when they left their gear out and polishing my armor. My teacher noticed and started calling me Tidy which kinda deteriorated to Tie when I loosened up a bit. I still like to keep a clean ship, drives Wing’s up the wall, but you probably could guess he’s a mess already.” 

“Did everyone just start calling you that?” Reza asked him, starting to form a theory.

Tie rubbed the back of his neck, but met her gaze easily. “My brothers and my instructor did, but everyone above just called me by my number until I started serving under a Jedi. Your people just seem to like it.”

Reza struggled to find a response. There was a dissonance here that gave her chills. It was obviously right to validate their individuality, but at the end of the day, the Republic was still just using them as droid fodder. The whole thing felt so cruel, but it felt more cruel to point out the hypocrisy, so she stayed silent. After her confrontation with Second on the shuttle, she was trying to be more careful with her words.

Laylan noticed and came to her rescue. “Well, I think Tie’s a wonderful name. You earned it, my parents just gave me mine.”  
Tie smiled at her, already fallen to her charm. Reza sometimes wondered if her friend had some latent Force ability no one had picked up on. She was just way too charming.

The doors to the conference room slid open and Daalh stalked in, throwing a bundle at Reza. She opened it to reveal a long robe in the Jedi style. She groaned loudly.

“Oh no you don’t,” Daalh said before Reza could open her mouth to object. “I let my contacts know about you, but you have to look the part.”

Reza looked down at her pants, boots and jacket. Sure it wasn’t regular Jedi clothing, but it was better for the field work she normally did.   
Reza opened her mouth to really complain but was interrupted by cries of triumph from Laylan and Tie. She and Daalh made to look over their shoulders. 

“I’ve got her!” Laylan exclaimed excitedly. “I can plot the path she took from here back to her base.”

Sure enough, her old enemy was visible in different spots on all of the screens. In one, her red eyes glanced up towards the camera. Reza congratulated Laylan, but her eyes fixated on Talis’s face. Anger that she’d locked inside of herself a long time ago started to boil inside her.


	7. Chapter 7

The club was a dump with a name that Daalh insisted was untranslatable, but Reza assumed was too nasty to say in the presence of a Jedi. Reza calmed her features in the way she always did in this situation and walked up, flanked by Second and Gale. Jay was in a sniper’s nest in a neighboring building. This was for the best as Second assured her he was a crack shot, but not good in crowds.

The bouncer took one look at her and the saber hanging from her belt with the intimidating troopers flanking her, and stood aside. Reza was used to pushing on people like this in the Force to gain access to the criminal element. That was before everyone saw what the Jedi Order was capable of during war, before they had armed men with them wherever they went. It was discomforting. 

Inside, some hideous, toneless music was playing as three beings danced on a raised stage. Others sat in groups of twos and threes around tables or at the bar. Reza already felt more comfortable. Clubs like these were her usual hunting ground. She walked over, pulled back her hood and sat down at the bar. 

She turned to her men. “Stay close for now.”

They nodded and flanked her barstool, still standing. Their blasters were secure, but she noticed Gale’s hand twitching towards the large blaster across his back. The bartender was occupied at the other end of the room. She signaled for them, trying to look as casual as possible. One of the sleeves of her robes trailed through a sticky liquid on the way down. She groaned. “I really hate wearing robes in the field.”

“Why?” Gale asked. “I thought that was part of your uniforms. Vitran and Amori always wore one.”

Second scoffed. “General Ire hasn’t worn one yet. She’s a scrapper. How long would she last on the street with all that cloth to pull on. Now stay focused, Gale.” 

Reza was pleasantly surprised by his astuteness. “You’re perceptive, Captain, and you’re no fun. Can’t we have a little banter to lighten the mood?”

“I’d prefer not to, General,” he replied firmly.

Reza shrugged and turned back to the bartender who was headed her way and looked irate. Reza put up a hand at the Qumerian in greeting and tried to smile charmingly.

“I don’t want any trouble,” they demanded before she could speak. “You and your men will have to leave.”

“Relax,” Reza said to him in soothing tones. “I’m just here for a drink and to rest my weary legs. Can’t you give me that?”

They folded their arms. “Your kind are nothing but trouble. I won’t be bullied.”

Reza stole a quick look around, people were watching to make sure she’d drawn their attention. She reached out for the Force and found it. She raised a hand and spoke to the bartender in a low voice, pushing on them lightly in the Force. “I’m just here for a drink.”  
Their brow creased for a moment and then melted into a more pleasant expression. “You’re just here for a drink.”

“I won’t be any trouble.”

“You won’t cause any trouble here,” they said absently.

She sat back. “I’ll have jet juice, no ice.”

The bartender looked confused for a moment. “Right, coming right up.” They scurried away, scratching their head. 

“Well that certainly drew attention,” Second murmured.

Reza reached out and felt the tension in the crowd. They knew something she didn’t. A visual check of the room showed several people nervously glancing towards the back of the club. Talis was already here. 

The bartender returned. She took a pretend sip of the drink and waited for them to retreat again. She motioned for her men to lean in, then whispered, “I think she’s waiting for us. I’m going to have a look in the back. Stay here and watch the door. I’ll call on my comm if I’m getting kriffed. If I find her, I’ll try to push her into the alley like we planned.”

“General, it’d be less risky if we all went together,” Second said, frustrated.

“It would be more conspicuous, and if it came down to a fire fight in the narrow hallway, it’d be a killbox for me.” She gave him a small smile. “I’ll be fine, I can run very fast if I have to.”

“Yes, Sir,” he conceded.

She rose from the stool, and casually walked to the back of the club towards the refresher. If the front of the club was poorly lit, the back was almost pitch dark. Reza walked on, unconcerned. There was a door with a viewport at eye level almost hidden. There was a bit of condensation left on the viewport. Someone had been watching the bar from there. 

Reza slipped through the door and into the hallway. The only light was the dim light of a lift control pad on the opposite wall. She cautiously moved down the hallway, hand firmly on her lightsaber hilt. 

“Are you looking for me, Jedi?” A figure detached from the side of the wall and stood her ground in the middle of the hallway. “It seems like I walked myself into a trap.”

The voice was chillingly familiar. It was Talis. Reza struggled to keep calm. “Looks like I have you cornered, Talis.” 

Talis grinned, white teeth reflecting the dim light of the control pad. “One lone Jedi won’t slow me down."

Talis ran towards Reza, knife drawn. Reza saw the attack coming and managed to get a hold of her wrist in mid stab. Talis twisted in her grip, bending Reza’s arm till she let go. Reza thought fast, the hallway was too narrow for a lightsaber fight. Talis primed for another attack and Reza used the Force to shove her back a few feet as she activated her wrist comm.

“I’m kriffed,” she yelled into the comm and put her fists up.

Talis recovered and came at her again, stabbing downward. Reza turned out of the way at the last moment and landed a few punches, using the Force for higher impact. Talis slashed at her again, but it was a feint. Reza felt her legs swept away and suddenly she was staring at the ceiling.

Talis loomed in her vision as she started muttering incomprehensible but familiar words as her other hand connected sturdily with Reza’s forehead. Reza’s vision blurred and all she could see were Tali’s burning red eyes as she fell back into her own mind. She couldn’t move, couldn’t scream. Talis was trying to work her dark Force magic to break Reza’s mind.

“General!” Someone was shouting behind her as the door to the hallway banged open.

It was time. She’d resisted before and she’d do it now. Reza closed her eyes, found the little part of herself that she’d sealed away, and let it go. Rage and adrenaline poured through her. Her mind was pure, burning anger. 

“What?” Talis sounded surprised as she was forced from Reza’s mind. 

Reza grabbed Talis’s shirt and hauled herself forward with a primal scream. Their heads collided like a crack of thunder in the small hallway. Talis stumbled back, shocked as Reza lept back to her feet. Talis threw the knife bIrely as she ran for the open lift doors. 

Through her rage, Reza saw it fly narrowly past her ear and towards the two troopers behind her. She turned and used the Force to knock it harmlessly to the ground moments before it collided with weak point between Second’s helmet and breastplate. 

The distraction was enough. The doors closed and the lift activated. Reza bolted to the panel which indicated that the lift had reached the roof access. She fought to keep the anger she’d unleashed from clouding her mind but it wasn’t working. 

“General, are you holding up?” Gale asked somewhere behind her.

“I’m fine,” she replied through gritted teeth as she reached out for the Force. The connection was fuzzier than she was used to but she managed to summon enough to open the doors to the lift shaft. She threw off her robe and leapt into the shaft ignoring the shouts of her men behind her. 

The bottom of the lift gave way to her lightsaber and the doors were as easy to force as the ones at the bottom. Reza stepped out on the roof. Talis was kneeling, talking into a comm. She rose when she saw Reza. 

“I remember you now, Jedi,” Talis said, still calm. In the light from the surrounding buildings her grey skin and short, pale blonde hair looked even more washed out than usual. “Five years ago, you tried to catch me. All the other Jedi who came after me were easy to take care of, but you managed to figure my trick out and resist. Lucky you.”

“Stop stalling,” Reza snarled as she activated her lightsaber. Two long light blue blades extended out from either side of her hilt. A gentle rain had started to fall and it sizzled off the blades. 

“So be it,” Talis responded lightly and extended her electrostaff.

There was a beat and then they rushed at each other. Electrostaff and lightsaber clashed with an audible buzzing sound. Reza shifted into the hyper aggressive form seven, but Talis met every blow with ease. Reza managed to get the upper hand for a moment with a well placed kick to the chest.

Talis stumbled backwards and Reza took the opportunity to swing at her exposed flank. Talis raised a gauntleted arm and blocked it, surprising Reza. Talis saw her opponent’s lightsaber was occupied, dropped her staff and pulled another knife, stabbing at Reza . Reza reached out for the Force and managed to hold it still, mere inches from her chest.

They stood there, locked in a stalemate. Reza felt her hold on the knife failing when suddenly, the sound of a blaster rang out behind her. A bolt hummed past her ear and caught Talis in the shoulder. At the same time, roof access door behind her burst open and she felt Gale and Second’s presences join her on the roof.

Talis howled in pain and jumped backwards. Reza couldn’t see Jay from where she stood, but he really was a clean shot. Gale and Second flanked her. Second was wielding a standard blaster while Gale had a massive two handed thing that Reza would hate to be on the business end of. 

“Please don’t shoot me in the back,” she quipped and rushed back at Talis.

To her credit, Talis didn’t let her still smoking shoulder slow her down. She retrieved her staff in one fluid motion and blocked a series of blows Reza showered down at her. Talis she was losing ground, Reza had her backed up to the edge of the roof when she started muttering an incantation. 

“Kriffing witch,” Reza swore loudly but it was too late. Dark energy radiated out from Talis and caught Reza square in the chest. She skidded on the roof, letting go of her saber. It slid across the wet durasteel. Talis was on her instantly, standing over her and preparing to bring the business end of the staff down onto Reza’s head. 

Metal clanged as another staff blocked Talis’s. Reza looked up and saw Second next to her, brandishing his own electrostaff and standing like he knew what to do with it. Talis looked as surprised as Reza was. He pressed into Talis, forcing her to step back from Reza. Talis unleashed a flurry of blows against him as Reza rolled away and summoned her saber to her again.

Too late, she saw Talis fake and Second fall for it. Talis lept and brought the electrofied end of the staff down into the exposed body suit barely visible between Second’s helmet and shoulder plate. He shuddered and dropped. 

Reza anger flared even hotter, behind her Gale was yelling. The sound him firing wildly and the whir of approaching engines downed him out. Reza made to close the gap between her and Talis, but the assassin reached out with the energy. Reza made to block it with the force, but it wasn’t aimed at her. It was aimed behind her. Reza turned in horror and saw Gale raise up in the air, squirming, and then go off the side of the building.

Reza’s feet were moving before she fully had time to process the situation. She didn’t look back to see Talis board her ship. The edge of building came up fast. She dropped her saber and followed Gale over it without a second thought. She reached out for the Force and dragged the falling man up towards her. His screaming didn’t stop as she managed to wrap her arm around his chest. She thrust out her other arm and found purchase on a window sill. Even with the Force slowing their fall, her shoulder strained painfully as they slowed to a stop.

Overhead, a ship sped away, making for orbit. 

Despite the pain of her precarious situation, Reza closed her eyes and tucked the last of her rage back into the little compartment in her mind where it belonged. Once that was taken care of, the Force came to her readily.

In her grasp, Gale was letting off a string of expletives that would make a Hutt blush.

“Gale,” she said in her most calming, Jedi voice. “I need you to calm down. I’ve got you.”

“Kriffing sithspit, General how are you even holding me?”

Reza reached out for her hard learned patience and calm. “Didn’t you serve with two Jedi before? It’s all the Force.”

He chuckled a little bit, calmer now. “Not doubting your Jedi stuff, General, but how are we getting to get back up?”

She didn’t give him an answer, he wouldn’t have liked it. Reza reached out and let go of him. He didn’t fall, but shot back up in an arc towards the roof. She felt him crash down harder than she’d intended. Lifting had never been her strength. Youngling exercises involving lifting eggs usually resulted in a sticky mess for whoever was standing opposite of her. She sighed at the memory and began to climb back up the side of the building.

Gale and Jay were both kneeling beside Second. Reza retrieved her lightsaber, looking away. A flash of concern broke through her restored peace. Relief rushed through her as she reached out to the Force and felt Second’s presence still with them.

She padded over to them, they had taken Second’s helmet off so the rain washed over his face. Unconscious, he looked very young. She knew how ironic that thought was given the accelerated ageing those creeps on Kamino designed, but what actually made him look so young was the absence of the frown lines and dark expression he’d worn since they’d met. 

“What have we done to you?” Reza whispered to herself.

Gale raised his head. “What was that General?”

“Nothing, how’s he doing?”

“He’s just stunned,” Gale said somberly. “His body suit absorbed most of the shock. Should be back up in a few hours.”

“Good, I’ll contact Wings for evac.” Her head was starting to hurt.

Gale stood. “General, I have field medic training, let me have a look at your head.”

She stared at him. “How did you know it was hurting?”

“Because you kriffing headbutted that witch so hard I felt the impact from the other side of the hallway.” He sighed, and held up a small light to her forehead. “You also already have a massive bruise.”

“Oh.” Reza honestly hadn’t noticed. There were consequences to letting anger guide your actions. She leaned in and let him examine the tender skin. “Thanks, Gale.”

“No problem, General.” She sensed him smiling under his helmet. “You can pay me back by warning me before you hurl me into low orbit, okay?”


	8. Chapter 8

“Well, at least half the mission went well,” Daalh said smugly. Reza shot her a look that in the context of their relationship meant ‘if I weren't a Jedi I would have kicked your ass a long time ago.’ Daalh just smiled back as she pulled up the pilfered data from Talis’s base. 

The other team looked no worse for wear, except for Daalh. She’d apparently decided the best way to disable a security terminal was to start grabbing wires and was slightly singed for her trouble. Tie had thankfully been unharmed and even Daalh had to admit he’d been an indispensable part of the team. He practically glowed from the praise Laylan heaped on him.

Reza rubbed at the bacta patch stuck to her forehead tried to focus on the debriefing. Once they got out of the rain, it’d become apparent that her well thought out headbutt hurt more than she’d thought. Her headache was so bad, she couldn’t tell if Gale was impressed, amused, or upset as he patched her up.

“Anyway,” Laylan said, glaring at her wife. “We squeezed quite a lot of data out of her terminals. She had it scrambled and didn’t keep anything too sensitive in there, but it was pretty simple to decode her communications.”

“Hey, I helped,” Tie piped up. Everyone was present except for the unconscious Second and Jay who’d wanted to watch him. Tie was tapping on a datapad. He smiled triumphantly. “She has a mole.” 

“Makes sense,” Reza mused. “Her movements are too precise. Inside information would mean she’d be able to pinpoint her target’s movement. Who’s the mole?”

“That’s the thing,” Laylan said, a hint of frustration in her voice. “The coded messages were going in and out of an open terminal on a Republic cruiser. We know which one it is, but it could honestly be anyone on the thing.”

“At least it narrows it down.” Reza felt more optimistic than her friend. “Which cruiser?”

Daalh and Laylan looked at each other. Daalh lost. “You’re either going to love this or hate it little Jedi. The transmissions came from the Brazen, where the 242nd Attack Battalion is stationed.”

“Oh kriff me,” Reza swore. Tie, Wings, and Gale looked between the three in confusion.

Wings spoke first, “It’s none of my business, General, but I feel like I’m missing something here.”

“General or Jedi Knight Lusha Taske or whatever he’s supposed to be called now is the reason Reza got in trouble with the Council,” Laylan chirped.

“He’s also her best friend or brother or whatever Jedi have,” Daalh added.

Reza glared at her friends. This was really wasn’t something she wanted to discuss in front of the men, but the they looked concerned. What had happened between her and Lusha suddenly was everyone’s business. She chose her words carefully. “General Taske and I had a bit of a disagreement over leadership tactics a few months back. It’s not a big deal, but it will make sniffing out the mole a bit more complicated for me.”

“That’s one hell of a coincidence,” Gale grumbled, giving a half shrug.

Reza smirked. “There’s no such thing. The Force can be a pain in the ass like that sometimes.”

Daalh snorted loudly and Laylan gave both of them an exasperated look. 

“Why not just tell this General and let him work it out?” Wings asked. “I mean, he’s a Jedi, he can read minds a whatnot.”

Reza started to make a smart remark, remembered who she was talking to and reconsidered. Between Gale’s confusion earlier and this, she guessed their previous generals hadn’t been too forthcoming about the order and the extent of their abilities. 

“Look, the Jedi try not to force our way into people’s minds like that. Besides, the second our mole senses something wrong, they’ll bolt. The fewer people who know, the better.”

Wings nodded slowly. “We can keep our mouths shut if we have to, General.” 

“I believe you,” Reza replied, mainly to convince herself. She looked between the troopers and something occurred to her. They called each other brothers didn’t they. She tried to be as tactful as possible with the the next question. “Wings, how do other, uh, troopers deal with others like you?”

He smiled. “General, you can say clone, it doesn’t offend us. It’s what we are.”

“Noted. What I’m trying to ask is will the 242nd accept you or will you stick out?”

“Oh, it’ll be a little strange, what with us being ARC and all, but they’re our brothers. They’re Captain Cliff and I trained together as kids. We’ll get along if that’s what you're worried about.” 

“Excellent,” Reza said, folding her arms and leaning back. “I’m a Jedi, no one’s going to talk to me unless ordered and Daalh and Lyalan will stick out, but you’ll blend in. I’m going to count on you to be my eyes and ears in there, got it?”

“You can count on us General,” Wings said enthusiastically. The others were nodding, slow smiles spreading across their faces.

Reza smiled too, it was infectious. Maybe this whole trooper thing would work out after all. The only member of the group who might cause problems was its captain. 

 

Jay sat at Second’s bedside. He was fidgeting with a small gadget that had no immediate purpose. He didn’t look up when she walked in. 

She stood there, not entirely sure what to say to him. She’d been struggling with the surprising amount of individuality she’d encountered amongst the men since she got there. Her previous understanding was that Kamino kept them as similar and compliant as possible. And frankly, she wasn't that social. 

He held up the gadget. “I get jumpy.”

“What are all the tally marks on your armor about?” She blurted out. She hadn’t intended to open with that, but she was curious. 

“Oh that?” He mimed holding a sniper blaster of some sort. “Kills I’ve made in one shot. You’re not really a good sniper if you target gets back up again.”

“You should be more confident in your aim, Jay. Your shot over my shoulder there was great, I’m surprised you didn’t take more.”

He turned to look at her, eyes narrowing. “Vitran and Amori didn’t like it when I shot past them. It messed up their forms or they moved too fast for a clean shot. Amori said it did more harm than good.”

“Jay, if you have a shot and want to save my ass, please do it,” Reza said laughing a little. 

“Let me know if there’s anything I can do to make it easier for you. I’ve never had sniper support, but after how your shot got me out of a rough spot in that last fight, I could adjust.” She’d never had someone watch her back, she hadn’t thought she would really need it until the fight with Talis went so poorly. 

“You’re not like the others,” Jay said suddenly. 

“What do you mean?”

He motioned, gesturing up and down her body. “You’re all messed up.”

“Excuse me?” Reza asked, feeling mildly uncomfortable. She was no Senator Amidala but she didn’t think she was that ugly, even with all the scar tissue.

Jay looked down, frowning. It looked like he was trying to find words. “I mean, the other Jedi, Vitran, Amori, and them. They’re all perfect, no scars. You look like us, like you’ve fought, not floated above.” 

“Um, thanks Jay.” He had a point, and it made her self-conscious. “I’ve got to go. When Captain Second wakes up and feels up to it, will you tell him I need to talk to him.”

“Yes, General,” he replied, turning his eyes back to the little gadget in his hands


	9. Chapter 9

Reza used the downtime it took for her assignment to the Brazen to be cleared to sleep off her headache. 

The dreams started almost as soon as she closed her eyes.

Blaster fire surrounded her, almost so dense that she couldn’t deflect it. Her saber movements stirred up the dry Geonosian earth around her, throwing it into her eyes and mouth. Reza did the best she could to keep the fire off of Lusha, her friend, as he brutally cut down any droid in a ten foot radius of her. Over the heads of the encroaching droid army, she could barely see Master Windu's distinct purple blade a hundred yards away.

They were all trapped. The largest single force of Jedi in this generation, and they were being torn to pieces by chunks of metal. Lusha’s dark green lekku streamed behind him as his short blue saber stabbed through droid after droid. She could see his energy fading. 

“Lusha!” She called. He glanced at her, but she didn’t know what to say so she just shook her head. 

He jumped back towards her, pressing his back against hers and helping her deflect. His voice was raw when he spoke, “Reza, stay focused. Don’t lose your center.”  
A droid stepped too close to her and she decapitated it. “You don’t get to lecture me like that when we’re about to die!”

He deflected a shot meant to catch her in the side and opened his mouth do no doubt say something about how fear of death was reductive and against Jedi teaching but stopped. He was looking out past the battle, eyes wide. 

Shuttles were touching down, and a wave of people were crashing into the sea of droids. Reza seized the moment, grabbed Lusha who was still stunned and started to run towards whoever they were. In the chaos, Reza easily cut her way through the mob. Attack droids did poorly when faced with complicated tactical movements. Lusha stayed a step behind her.

“You really think they are friendly?” he panted.

“Anyone fighting what we’re fighting is friendly,” she shouted back. 

They were almost at the front line and its chaos. Reza could feel the Force boiling and convulsing with the deaths of the new soldiers and her fellow Jedi. 

They finally broke through the line, taking down three droideka as they went. There was a tense moment where the two Jedi stared down the expressionless white helmets of the new army, lightsabers ready, unsure what to make of them. Reza had never seen the armor before. It looked almost mandalorian.

One of the soldiers waved them over. His white armor was outlined in red, making him as an officer, she guessed. Reza deactivated her saber and went over, Lusha following her lead wearily. The waves of soldiers closed around them, continuing to gain ground on them, moving quickly and efficiently. 

The soldier who’d waved them over removed his helmet. He was startlingly young, a few years younger than Reza by her own estimate. His black hair was buzzed in an old fashioned military style and his expression was firm. 

He saluted the two Jedi. Lusha bowed slightly, but Reza stayed standing, suddenly confused. No one had ever saluted to her before. 

He spoke with an accent she could have sworn she’d heard before. “CC-1380 reporting, Sirs. Are you injured?”

Reza frowned, what she’d never heard that kind of identification number like that before. She’d also ever met a soldier who’d use their identification number rather than their name. 

“We’re alright,” Lusha responded, taking the whole situation remarkably in stride. “I need an update on the situation.”

“Master Yoda sent our company to extract you. We’ll take your orders, Sirs.” He was all business.

Reza stared at him. “But we’re not-” 

“Thank you, we need to focus on moving towards the spaceport on the other side of the ridge,” Lusha said, cutting her off. “Keep in comm contact with the others we’ll need to coordinate our movement.”

“Yes, sir,” the man called, donning his helmet and raising his blaster. 

Reza looked at Lusha in shock. Sure she knew he’d served as a security coordinator on a civil war torn planet, but she’d never seen him in action. He smiled at her a little, as if to reassure her, but they were both suddenly distracted by a disturbance in the Force. 

Reza tackled CC-1308 to the ground as the explosive hit the ground next to them and detonated. She deflected the shrapnel as they crashed back into the dust. She sprang back to her feet, checking to see if Lusha was still alright and extending a hand to the downed soldier. 

“Thank you, sir,” CC-1308 said, taking her hand and getting back to his feet.

She nodded and picked her way around the blast crater towards where Lusha was standing up. Some of the soldier's hadn’t been lucky enough to be standing next to a Jedi. She looked down at a body whose helmet had been discarded, and froze. The soldier had CC-1308s face. Suddenly the identical armor and the identification number made sense.

She ran at Lusha, trying to keep herself under control and not yell at him. “What is this? I’d heard rumors of a manufactured army, but I never thought we’d stoop so low.”

Lusha grabbed her arm. “Reza, this isn’t the time.”

“I can’t have spent my career tracking slavers and seeking justice for this!” She gestured to the fallen clone. Not a clone, a man, she couldn’t let herself start thinking like that.

Lusha reached up and grasped the back of her head. He pressed her forehead to his, like he’d done when they were younglings.

“This is not the time or the place, Reza,” he said, softly, but firmly. “I need you to think with your head and not your feelings. You aren’t helping like this.”

He was right, like always. Reza closed her eyes and found her center. She pushed Lusha away lightly. 

“I’m calm, I can do this,” she said, reassuring herself as much as him. Reza took one last look at the dead man and activated her lightsaber.

 

Reza woke in a cold sweat to someone knocking on her door. It had been a Force dream, but she didn’t know what it meant. These things rarely were self explanatory. She struggled to get up, wrap a jacket around herself, and answer her door. 

It was Second. His eyes went directly to the side of her head. She realized her braid was undone and quickly covered the fairly unattractive scarring that used to be an ear with her hair. 

“Captain?” She asked, trying to clear her mind after the vividness of the dream. It wasn’t helping that Second obviously looked so like that first trooper on Geonosis.

“You wanted to see me, General?” He asked, gaze now fixed somewhere in just above her head.

“I did,” Reza said, remembering and finally finding her center. It didn’t feel right to ask him into her personal quarters. “Walk with me.”

They started down the hallway towards the one courtyard in the admin building. “How are you feeling? Getting hit with that much electrical charge is never fun.”

“I’m feeling just fine, General,” he said, somewhat stonily. 

They entered the courtyard. The weak Quermian sun broke weakly through the tall buildings surrounding them. She leaned against one of the retaining walls. He stood to attention in front of her, seemingly intent on making this as awkward as possible.

“Second,” she said quietly. “What did I say about stunts?”

He didn’t look her in the face. “What are you referring to, General?”

“You know,” Reza snapped. “She could have killed you at close quarters like that. She almost did!”

“General, your life was in danger, I did what I had to.”

She sighed. “My life has been and will be in danger all the time. You don’t need to put yours at risk every time I seem to be in danger.”

He took a step closer, frustration radiating off of him so much that even she could feel it through the Force. “General, my job is to protect you, no matter the cost.”  
“It’s not, Second. Your job is to protect the Republic for all of us, not just me.” She didn’t understand how he could be so against her leadership and then risk his life for hers. “I’m your c.o., don’t make me order you not be reckless.”

His eyes snapped to her face, dark and intelligent. “With all due respect, General, maybe you should take a bit of your own advice. I was there, you said not to engage with her directly, then you try to take her at close quarters and alone.”

It took her a moment to find her voice, “Do you talk to every general like that?”

He clasped his hands behind his back, his face determined. “Just the ones who fly into unexplained rages and ignore their own orders.”

“You really don’t know anything about me, Captain,” she said, glaring. She’d allowed him to push her too far on the shuttle and now he thought he was walking all over her.

He glared right back at her. “I do know that you Jedi like keeping your emotions in check and something about the way you acted back there doesn’t track with that.”

Reza suddenly wanted to be anywhere but that little courtyard under his piercing gaze. She brushed past him. “Maybe I’m just not a good Jedi,” she snapped, before she could stop herself. Reza stormed inside wondering how she could ever regain his respect, but too proud to try right now.


	10. Chapter 10

Despite her efforts, Reza noticed her team getting bored. It had only been around three standard days on the Brazen, but Reza could already sense her people getting bored. It was fairly quiet, Lusha and most of the 424th were planetside, running a quick strike on a droid production facility. 

Reza had half hoped to find the mole and be gone before they got back. Long stakeouts lead to poor decision making brought on by boredom, a lesson Reza had learned the hard way as a Padawan. Daalh, Lalyan, and Tie had found inserting themselves into every system on the ship entertaining for a day and a half, but had joined the rest of them in sitting around after that.

Reza’s team congregated in one of the mess halls. It hadn't been planned,but there were few places to be without getting in the way. Laylan and Tie were talking tech, quietly huddled, a data pad between them. Daalh and Gale were playing some game she’d never seen before, Jay was humming as he fiddled with his blaster, and Second was reading. Wings was sitting across from Reza, looking over what seemed to be flight manifests and occasionally asking increasingly personal questions. 

Reza tried to focus on the report the Jedi archivists had written about the Talis case five years ago, trying to find some clue she’d missed. It was difficult, the report was clinical and less than flattering. It detailed the the days of mental torture Talis put her through and the rage that her Master, Kalere, found her in after her escape. There was a vid of Kalere taking her down, notated with theories about how Reza had used anger to withstand full mental domination. She scrolled past that quickly.  
That section was followed by notes made by the healer who’d worked with her for months after the incident. It was nothing new, just a description of the mental storage the healer helped her build for her anger and a note for the Council to keep a close watch on Reza for any emotional instability. 

She scrolled back up to the vid, drawn by a sick compulsion. She’d never seen it. To be honest, Reza didn’t even remember the fight. Her twenty year old self had shorter hair, fewer scars, and was still wearing one of those impractical robes. It would have been amusing if not for the look on her face. It was a twisted snarl that made her almost unrecognizable. She watched helplessly as Kalere, her master and closest friend approached her, palms up, trying to talk her down. Past Reza activated her saber and attacked. Reza cleared the datapad and practically threw it away from her. It clattered on the table. Wings looked up, startled.   
“Everything alright, General?” He asked, quietly as if he didn’t want the others to overhear. 

“It’s nothing,” she snapped, more harshly than she intended. He drew back a bit, and raised his hands in mock surrender. She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. “Sorry. It’s just nothing you need to worry about.”

“Whatever you say, Sir,” he said and leaned in. “General, can I speak freely for a bit.”

“Well you haven’t really needed my permission to speak your mind before, so go ahead.” 

Wings broke into his easy smile. “I won’t pretend to know what goes on with all your Jedi business, but it’s pretty clear you’re not used to playing with others.”  
Reza looked at his earnest expression, and softened. “I’ve spent most of my time working alone or with people like my friends, who don’t want orders.”  
“What did you do before the war?”

“I was an investigator, I helped catch absolute scum.”

“They must have been pretty bad for your face to end up like that.” He immediately clapped a hand over his mouth, but Reza laughed.

“They don’t send Jedi after just any criminal, Wings. I hunted people too slick or evil for the normal authorities.”

“Like Talis?” He sounded haunted and she was reminded that he and his brothers witnessed her completely destroy their last general. 

“Exactly like Talis.”

Wings ran a hand through his short blonde locks. Reza briefly wondered if it was a genetic variation or if he dyed it. He leaned in further. “Maybe if you opened up about that a little more it would help all of us get along.”

“What do you mean?” 

“Well look at it from our perspective, we’re all ARC, the best soldiers out of an army of the best. We served under two incredible Jedi who both took their roles as commanding officers very seriously.” He paused, taking a breath. “And when we lose our general and most of our brothers, we get sent this disgraced Knight whose friends are criminals and who seems to forget she’s supposed to be commanding us when things get hairy. It’s a little hard to trust someone like that.”

Reza felt she’d been dosed in cold water. She stared into Wing’s now deadly serious face. Of course they didn’t trust her, she’d given them no explanations, no real introduction. She’d been so focused on her own redemption. Why had she thought she’d be able to do what she wanted? 

Reza tried not to lower her head in shame and chose her next words carefully, finally letting go of her pride. It was easier to do with Wings who seemed to be unbelievably good natured. “That’s all fair, thanks for bringing it up, Wings. What can I do to make things better?”

“I’d start with him,” Wings nodded towards where Second was reading. “I’m a good pilot and I’ll tell you like it is, but he’s our captain. He was close to our Generals Vitran and Amori.”

“So he’s your leader, was close to the other Jedi and he already has a problem with me?” 

Wings smiled again. “The rest of us are trying to figure that one out. Second’s usually such a suck up, since we were younglings. He was always teacher’s pet when we were little, and he and Vitran, our first general, were practically inseparable. Don’t tell him I told you that.”

Reza looked over at Second. He was wearing a serious expression even while reading. She tried to picture him as a youngling kissing up to instructors and failed. She turned back to Wings to express this thought and was interrupted by the sudden noise of a gameboard crashing to the floor.

Gale was standing now, fury on his face, looking down at Daalh. “Say that again.”

Daalh had a look on her face that she usually had when she was figuring out how hard she could push someone. “What? I just wanted to know what kind of feelings they programmed you with.”

Gale went for her, and everyone started moving at once, but Reza was the fastest. She reached out with the Force and held Gale, mid punch. Everyone froze, realizing what had happened. 

“Daalh Vadaan, take a walk, and if I ever hear you talk to my men like that again, I’ll throw you out.” Daalh looked at Reza to see if she was serious. 

“Get out of here,” Reza said again again, the little box inside her head started to buckle as anger blossomed in her chest.

Daalh stood, shot a deadly glare at Reza and stormed off. Laylan followed and Reza knew that only she could talk sense into Daalh. Reza lowered her hand and released Gale. The men were staring at her expectantly. She drew herself up to her full height. 

“Look, I don’t care who it is, if someone says something like that to any of you like that again, I’ll set them straight.”  
Gale snorted. “I was about to set her straight if you’d let me.” 

“Don’t be an idiot, Gale,” Second snapped. “The General was right to stop you. You’re going to get yourself court martialed. Besides, you can’t really blame her, most civilians don’t know what we are anyway.”

Reza cocked her head at him, surprised, but grateful for the support. Something suddenly occurred to her. “Second’s right, the Jedi can sense you in the Force, you all read like other sentients, individual and with a full range of emotions. But most people can’t sense that. It’s not like the Senate helps with that, your birth and education are technically Kamino copyrighted property as far as I could tell when I did some digging...” She trailed off, they were looking at her with varying concerned expressions.

Tie spoke first. “You read our minds all the time?”

“What? No!” Reza mentally scolded herself, she always forgot how uncomfortable this conversation was for people. “I mean, I could, but I would never violate any of you like that. Mind reading is a dark tool. What I can do is sense your presence the Force, when I’m meditating, you light up and every light is different. Most of the time I just sense strong emotion, I can’t not do it.”

She looked around. Wings nodded slowly, but the others looked unconvinced. She tried again, “Did Vitran or Amori never tell you? Both of them were more sensitive than I am.”

“They were never very specific about anything Jedi related,” Second answered, diplomatically.

Wings snorted. “I’m surprised Vitran didn’t give you any private Jedi power lessons, Second, what with all the time you two spent alone together.”

Reza looked between them. Wings was smiling and Second was actually blushing. She was very curious, but knew she didn’t have the time or trust to ask. “Anyway, I’m going to sort Daalh out and then we’re all going to sit down and I’m going to explain at least something about the Force so you all will all stop staring at me like that.”

She turned to leave the mess. “Is that an order General?” Wings called after her.

“Sure, why not,” she said over her shoulder.

As the door closed, she actually heard them laughing.

Daalh was sulking in the storage room they’d converted into a bedroom for the two of them. Laylan was sitting next to her wife on their cot, a loving hand on her knee, but was talking sternly. “I know you don’t trust the government, but they boys aren’t the government.”

She glared at Reza as she took a seat across from them on a busted pilot’s seat. “They’re not boys, they’re a blaster waiting to go off.”

“Do you know how ridiculous and paranoid you sound right now?” Reza felt a little sick. She’d never fought with Daalh before.

Laylan pointed a delicate finger at her. “Reza you’re not helping, but she does have a point, my love. The republic has its flaws, but you’re starting to sound like a conspiracy theorist.”

“Fine,” Daalh huffed, her moodiness buckling under Layalan’s calming presence. “But can you really blame me? Even you couldn’t find out much when you tried to investigate their origins, Little Jedi. We don’t know what they are.”

“The Council made a major ethical error when they ordered this army,” Reza said calming down. “But I don’t see any nefarious schemes getting past them.”

“If you say so, Little Jedi.”

Reza frowned at her friend. “You can play at you wack job theories all you want in your head, but you’ll treat my men like people while we’re out here. They’re people and they have to live with everyone else dehumanizing them.”

Daalh glared at her. “This is really the hill you’re going to die on, hm?”

“It’s the only hill worth dying on at this point.”

“Fine, I won’t pick at them anymore,” she shook her head. “I keep forgetting your a Jedi and then say something like that. I’m sorry, you’re right.”

Laylan wrapped her arm around Daalh’s neck. “And you’re going to apologize to Gale for me.”

Daalh smiled and pulled Laylan into her lap, “What will I get for apologizing my dear?”

Laylan leaned in and gave her wife a playful peck on the mouth. “Anything you want, really.”

“I’m leaving,” Reza said, standing abruptly. Her face burned as it always did when her friends got mushy. “I’m leaving right now.”

“You act like you’ve been the perfect Jedi never once giving into the temptation of the flesh,” Daalh said smiling and squeezing Laylan closer. 

“That was one time and under very complicated circumstances,” Reza said, slamming the panel on the door and willing it to open as quickly as possible. The sex question was one that came up often from those outside the order, but it was one she never got used to. 

Her friend’s laughter followed her down the hallway. Reza felt her step grow lighter by the minute. That could have gone so much worse.


	11. Chapter 11

A day later the 424th was back and Reza’s good mood was replaced by apprehension and claustrophobia as the decks of the Brazen began to fill with men, some of whom pointed at her and whispered to each other. She distracted herself by making good on her promise to Widow Squadron and trying to explain her Jedi abilities to them. 

Tie and Wings seemed very interested in pushing, pulling, and lifting. Tie even offered to be thrown around if she wanted to. Gale wanted to know if she could heal, which she admitted she’d always been bad at. Jay even perked up when she mentioned how she could sense most blasts coming and wanted to know just how big a projectile she could block. 

Second stayed quiet for the whole lecture, just looking at her. At the very end he had only one question. “Why do you Jedi meditate all the time?”

Reza was honestly taken aback. She’d been meditating for as long as she could remember. No one had actually asked that before. She thought for a moment, trying to come up with an answer that they would understand. 

“Well, I think it varies. I meditate when my mind gets too busy or when I feel alone. It lets me have a better connection to the Force, so I can sense every living thing around me. Reminds me that I’m never alone, even if I’m hunting on an outer-rim dust ball no one’s ever heard of. We all do it but it’s different for everyone.” She cleared her throat, feeling strangely vulnerable in that moment. “Does that answer your question?”

“That answers a lot of questions, actually,” he replied sharply. The knowing look he gave her was slightly unsettling, like he’d gleaned something interesting about her from that single question.

The door to the briefing room they had co-opted slid open and another clone walked in. He had a shaved head and a single gold ring hanging from his left ear. Lusha’s captain, she remembered the man from her last, unfortunate meeting with the 424th.

“General Ire.” He saluted her. She gave a half bow.

“Cliff you old nerfherder, it’s good to see you still alive,” Wings hollered as he vaulted the table and practically tackled the other man.

Second and Gale followed at a more reasonable speed. Second clapped the struggling man on the back, face illuminated by a smile that eased his frown lines and severe burn marks. Captain Cliff was looking at her eyes wide and trying to wriggle out of Wing’s grasp.

Wings saw him looking. “Don’t worry about the General, she’s alright.”

“Yeah, at ease or whatever,” Reza said flippantly.

Cliff visibly relaxed, he disentangled himself from Wing’s embrace and gave Second and Gale a quick hug. “Good to see you, little brothers. I hope I didn’t interrupt anything important.”

“Nah, the General was just bragging about her Jedi powers,” Wings teased.

Reza feigned offence. “Hey, would you rather I just said, ‘The Force works in mysterious ways’ and scare the piss out of you next time I threw one of you?”

A shadow of a smile passed over Captain Cliff’s face and Reza knew he was thinking about Lusha’s holier than thou attitude when it came to the Force. He scratched his neck. “General Ire, General Taske asked me to bring you and your captain to his quarters.” 

“If his majesty summons us, we must obey,” she said dramatically, to hide her internal dread. Cliff and Second exchanged a glance that clearly said Jedi.

Cliff lead them through the hallways, troopers who encountered them snapped to attention like clock work. It was so strange compared to the way Widow Squadron greeted her. Reza didn’t like it at all.

“Why did my dear Lusha send his captain down to do the work of an intercom Cliff?” Reza asked while they waited for the lift. 

Cliff had his back to them but she noticed a slight blush spreading over the back of his neck. “I volunteered actually, I couldn’t wait to see my little brothers.” The doors opened and they stepped in. Cliff regarded her for a moment. “And, if I may be so bold, General, I wanted to thank you in person for saving my life.”

Reza looked at Cliff, momentarily at a loss for words. Then, she remembered. The man in the Captain’s armor with a decal of some pop star on the helmet and the 424th’s signature deep green, must have been Cliff. She remembered hauling him bodily through the mangled wreck of the ship she’d just crashed and into the last escape pod. 

“Oh that,” she said, trying to sound casual. “You’re welcome, Captain.”

Cliff smiled warmly and lowered his voice even though they were alone in a lift. “My men and I are all sorry that you got the book thrown at you for saving us, but we can’t say we’re not grateful.”

Reza shrugged. “I’m glad to know someone appreciates what I did back there, and it’s not like the red tape kept me down for long.”

Cliff chuckled. Second was looking between the two in complete confusion. “Wha-” he started to ask, but the lift doors opened.

Reza held up a hand. “Later, and don’t say anything about that conversation in front of Lush- I mean General Taske.”

Lusha was sitting behind his desk when they walked into his quarters. They were roomier than anything the Jedi had at the temple with a front office and multiple doors leading off into other chambers. Reza was struck by how normal he looked. He was still wearing his trademark sleeveless robes. His dark green skin was still flawless as ever save for a new scar where a chunk had been taken out of one of his lekku. The headwrap she’d given him when he’d passed his Jedi trials was noticeably absent.

“Reza,” he said evenly, standing up. His annoying self control was on full display. So much for the tearful apology she’d hoped for. 

“Lusha, good to see you,” She said aloofly. She could feel Cliff and Second’s discomfort as they saluted and wondered why Lusha had wanted to do this in front of them. 

“At ease,” he said, addressing the men. Lusha walked over to Second, inspecting him in a way that made Reza want to stand between them. “What’s your designation, soldier?”

“ARC-3303, sir.”

“And your name?”

“Second, sir.”

Lusha cocked his head. “Very good, an ARC Trooper and a captain at that. We welcome such talent in the 424th.”

“Thank you sir,” Second said, puffing out his chest slightly. Reza resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

“I must say, I am surprised to see you back on the battlefield so soon, Reza,” he said coolly, turning his attention back to her.

“The Force often works in mysterious ways, as you know, Lusha. I was called to this mission.” Annoyance flicked across his face to Reza’s delight.  
He turned his attention back to Second. “Captain, give me your mission briefing.”

Reza’s eyes widened, he'd called Second in because he didn't trust her and he thought he'd be a weaker target. It was a dirty trick, but one that might work given how little Second seemed to respect her.

She tried to keep her demeanor as calm as possible. “All questions regarding Widow Squadron’s missions should be directed to me as I am the commanding officer.”  
Lusha kept his eyes on Second, “I am glad to see you're finally taking the chain of command seriously, but I asked him.”

“General Ire, I'm happy to answer General Taske’s question,” he said, shooting Reza a sidelong glance. “General Taske, our official assignment is to offer your Battalion forward reconnaissance support as is our speciality. Any further questions should be directed to General Ire. With all due respect, sir, I just follow her orders.”

Reza could have laughed. He’d told Lusha a truth, but not the truth. Second knew that the only way to lie to a Jedi was not to. He’d obviously done it before. 

“Thank you Captain, you're dismissed and you should dismiss Captain Cliff too if you want to talk about it like adults instead of trying to undermine my authority in front of my captain.” 

He frowned, but turned to Cliff. “Dismissed, Captain.”

The two men saluted and beat the hastiest retreat she’d ever seen. She folded her arms and glared at her friend. All of the meditation and letting go she’d done during temple arrest went out the airlock as she met his icy gaze.

“You sold me out, Lusha,” she said, voice barely under control. “I saved your life and you stood in front of the council and told them I was emotionally compromised.”  
“You were,” he said firmly, but softly. “Allowing you to remain in a position of power would have been a mistake.” 

“What are you talking about? I saved you, I saved your men, it was a good call.”

He scoffed, actually scoffed. “You’ve always been like this, Reza, too many years running around the galaxy playing the righteous avenger and never learned how to follow orders, or how to give them.”

“I’m a Jedi Knight, it’s not exactly part of the required skill set,” her voice was rising but she didn’t care. “We aren’t supposed to be commanders and generals, we were supposed to protect order and justice!”

“This is defending order and justice,” Lusha’s calm cracked and he was yelling. “The sooner you realize that the sooner we can go back to the way things were.”  
“And you thought the best way to defend those ideals is to take thirty of your men on a suicide mission!”

Both of them took a step back in surprise. Their combined anger flared through the Force, creating an almost physical backlash. Reza breathed deeply and centered herself. The box inside her head held firm, but it had buckled under the strain. 

She held her hands up. “Listen, this is your ship, I’ll defer to you, but things will never be like they were and if I see you being careless with these men’s lives again, I’ll stop you, no matter what the Council decides to do to me.”

Reza turned and left the office before their fight escalated further. Out in the hallway, she yanked the beaded chain out of the hole in her good ear and stared at it. She remembered the day Lusha gave it to her like it was yesterday. Lusha had just passed his Jedi trials and was all smiles, which was rare for such a serious person. He’d snapped off part of the beaded chain he’d worn as a Padawan and handed it to her. 

“I couldn’t have done it without you,” Lusha said, embracing her.

Reza scoffed and shoved the pendent into her pocket. Lusha had decided their bond was less important than the war effort, he’d have to live without her help. She had bigger problems to worry about anyway. 

 

“Are you mad at me too?” The voice was quiet, polite, and startled Reza so badly she fell out of her meditation stance and off of the bunk in her borrowed quarters. A young Mirialan girl was sitting cross legged on the desk in her room. 

Reza leapt up. “Niobe Jhcor, what have I always told you about sneaking around.”

“I wasn’t sneaking, Reza, this is our ship and I did knock, but you didn’t answer. Master Lusha said I couldn’t talk to you until he did, so I listened in,” she said, raising her eyebrows and distorting the black markings that dotted her forehead.

“I still can’t believe someone as stoic as Lusha trained a Padawan like you.”

Niobe rolled her eyes. “Maybe it was your influence. Well, Reza, are you mad at me or not?” 

Reza tucked a stray curl of black hair back underneath the scarf she wore around her head. “I could never be angry at you. And I’m not angry at Lusha, we’re Jedi, we don’t do anger remember.”

“Then why were you yelling earlier?” Niobe pressed. 

“Lusha and I just disagree on a few things these days.” That was an understatement, but padawans talked and she didn’t want the slowly developing disaster that was her and Lusha’s friendship to get out. “But enough about me, how are you?”

Niobe sobered suddenly, she looked down. “Reza, I’m so, tired. Every mission we lose men, and I’m not strong enough yet to protect anyone. Every time we load out, I have a hard time finding my center when I think about what could happen to Lusha, or Cliff or Keen. Lusha keeps telling me to let go, but I just can’t sometimes.” She reached out and touched the back of Reza’s hand. “You understand that don’t you.”

Reza thought about what she could tell her, that she knew exactly how she felt. How’d she’d been on her own for so long and was suddenly responsible for five lives. And how she was kriffing that up spectacularly.

But Niobe didn’t need that, she needed guidance. Reza caught Niobe’s hand in her’s. “It’s okay, Niobe. Those feelings aren’t wrong, but you can’t let them own you, you’re stronger than your emotions.”

Niobe cocked an eyebrow. “That’s not the way Lusha put it, but I guess that makes sense.” 

Reza was struck by how young she looked, only halfway through her Padawan training and they had her out here giving orders. Reza lowered her voice conspiratorially, “If you really want some non-Lusha approved advice, just listen to your captain. It’s messed up, but Cliff was born to do this.”

“I know,” Niobe answered softly. “But Lusha says they should remember I outrank them, that they were born to take orders from us. He cares about our men, he feels their losses deeply, but he acts like he’s still a freedom fighter and the risks he takes…”

“This is why he and I were fighting, Niobe. He’s your master, but he’s not always right. The Force knows Kalere and I got into it often enough.” 

Niobe side-eyed her and opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Reza’s comm going off. 

“General, we’ve got something for you,” Second’s clipped speech pattern buzzed through.

“Right, Captain, meet me somewhere big and loud, I don’t want to be overheard,” Reza responded as Niobe raised her eyebrow again. 

“Acknowledged… General.” There was suddenly an emotion in his voice she couldn’t place.

She turned around. “Let’s get out of here before your Master accuses me of poisoning your mind or something.”


	12. Chapter 12

The training facilities were certainly big and loud enough that the surveillance couldn’t hear what they were up to. Widow squadron, Laylan, and Daalh gathered by the sparring mat that Niobe and Lusha most likely used for training. Various member of the 424th were lifting weights, using the punching bags, or practicing at the shooting range. Gale, Second, and Jay were wearing identical training uniforms, black sleeveless shirts and tight pants.

Reza leaned against the back wall and folded her arms. “What have we got?”

Tie stepped forward. “Well someone sent a message using the code we deciphered from Talis’s computer a few hours ago. I got to the terminal within minutes but whoever sent it was gone.”

“I’m guessing this agent was smart enough to bounce dummy messages to multiple hubs, so we can’t trace the real one,” Reza said, already starting to feel tired.

“You bet,” Tie said, cheerily. 

“We did get prints off of the terminal and we got a match,” Laylan piped up.

“That’s good news, who was it?” Reza asked.

Tie and Laylan looked at each other with a conspiratorial smile. Laylan spoke first, “Well, we got a positive ID on the prints, but it was Jango Fett.”

Reza looked around at the few dozen identical men in the training room and let out a short laugh. “I guess if this was easy, we wouldn’t be here.”

Reza felt a wave of disgust wash over her from the men. Second cleared his throat. “I’ll ask Cliff if he’s noticed anyone acting strangely, if that’s alright, General. I know you you wanted to be discreet.” 

“That’s fine, I trust him.”

“And he trusts you, a lot, just so you know.” Second was looking at the wall somewhere near her head instead of directly at her. His tone was softer than it usually was. Something had changed in the way he regarded her, but she didn’t want to press it in front of everyone.

“Someone betrayed the vod,” Jay said quietly, and angrily. “How could he?”

Gale tapped Jay on the shoulder and shook his head a little. Jay was angry, they all were taking this so personally. She made a mental note to ask about that later. “I need you all to stay sharp and clear here. It’s always rough when one of your own people goes bad, but it happens. Find out who he is, but don’t waste him before we can get our information, understood?”

“Yes General,” the five voices rang out in unison. Her eyes flicked around, taking in the scowls and the tense posture of her men. Even the usually copacetic Wings was biting his lip, looking uncomfortable. 

Reza folded her arms. “Alright, disperse all of you, we’re starting to draw attention.”

She watched them go off in different directions. Wings took Jay’s shoulder and walked off with him, talking quietly. Second retreated and started working on a punching bag on the other side of the facility. Tie and Gale lingered near Laylan and Daalh. Laylan nudged Daalh and looked at her expectantly. 

Daalh grimaced and walked over to Gale who looked at her stonily. “Vadaan,” he said and there was ice in his voice.

“Gale,” Daalh replied, not doing her best to be nice. “Look, I’m sorry I asked that apparently offensive question earlier.” She held out a hand. “Are we even?”

Gale glanced at the hand and shook his head slowly. Reza frowned and prepared to step in, but Gale spoke, “Apologies are nice, but it’s not the way we usually settle things between brothers.” He gestured to the training mat. Daalh smiled, taking his meaning instantly.

She stepped onto the mat, she was taller than Gale even without the extra height added by her Montrails, but Gale looked just as formidable even if he was leaner. Laylan and Tie joined Reza against the wall as the fighters squared up.

Tie looked at Reza apprehensively. “Aren’t you going to put a stop to this, General?”

“I’m not the General of interpersonal drama,” Reza said mildly. “If this is how they need to work out their problem, then so be it.” 

“It’s a good idea,” Laylan said, a dreamy quality in her voice. “Those two are actually remarkably similar.” 

Reza noticed her friend’s huge black eyes following both fighters appreciatively as they started trade blows. “Don’t be gross.”

Reza watched them fight. Lalyan was right, they had similar fighting styles, all heavy punching and grappling, neither of them were light on their feet. Reza looked between Gale and his brothers who were going through various exercises. There were subtle differences between the physiques of all of them, but generally they were similar down to muscle mass. Reza looked at the tattoos on Gale’s head. The branches of the tree extended over his head and to his jaw line. She understood the tattoos and the hair and the painted armor. Maybe it was same reason she never let the heal her scars.

“Vitran never liked it when we fought,” Tie said breaking her from her thoughts. 

There was that name again. The mysterious General Vitran. “I wasn’t aware you were assigned to a Jedi before Amori. What was he like?”

Tie’s face fell. “Couldn’t say, Sir, there were a lot more of us back then and he died only a few days after I got transferred to him. I wouldn't ask the others about him. It’s touchy.”

“Oh,” Reza said. It was all she could say. 

On the mat, Gale gained the upper hand. He’d manage to get Daalh in a headlock and was smirking as she tried to punch his stomach. Finally, Daalh capitulated, throwing her hands in the air. Reza raised an eyebrow, Daalh hadn’t fought as dirty as she usually did. 

“They really aren't kidding when they talk about how good you clones are,” Daalh was saying. “You forgive me?”

Gale smiled. “We’re the best, and seeing as you let me kick your ass, I think you’re forgiven.”

“You both are big, but do you have speed and flexibility?” Laylan said, running over. “I could take both of you down.”

Reza rolled her eyes as Laylan began to teach Gale a lesson about how to use an opponent's strength against them. Her sight drifted over to Second who was in the process of voiding the warranty on the punching bag. Jedi sparred all the time, but she’d never seen it be used as conflict resolution before. If she was going to bond with her men, she had to adapt. The rest wouldn’t completely trust her until Second did. Maybe a bit of sparring would loosen him up. 

She stripped down to her undershirt and took off her boots. There was a rack of wooden sparring weapons along the back wall that were undoubtedly for Niobe’s training. She grabbed two staffs and walked over to Second. His strikes were precise and restrained very unlike Gale’s. 

It was interesting to watch him work, she’d hadn’t made been paying too much attention to his form in the Talis fight. He was surprisingly lean, as all he and his brothers were. But, most of the most other humans looked lean to her. The burn on his face extended down his neck and onto his shoulder that was visible in his training uniform. Reza was well aware that every scar had a story behind it, and wondered if she’d ever get to hear that one. 

“Hi, General, do you need something?” Second turned towards her, snapping her out of her pondering. His tone was much warmer and lighter than she’d ever heard from him.

She held out a staff. “I saw your moves in that last fight. You were good, but your form could use some work.” 

“Oh really?” He actually smiled a little bit. “No offense, General, but I think you have me at a disadvantage with all of your Jedi whatever.”

“No ‘Jedi whatever,’ I promise.”

He took the staff. “Okay, General, just this once.”

They took their stances across from each other. Reza bounced on the balls of her feet, limbering up. “I’ve never seen a trooper fight with a staff before, why do you?”  
“General Vitran taught me.” His face darkened a little. “It’s not exactly regulation.” 

Reza perked up at the mention of Vitran, but didn’t ask. Instead, she took a basic sparring pose, which he mirrored. If he was taught by a Jedi, he would probably mimic one of the forms, and she was curious to see the ghost of this Master Vitran’s style in Second. He tapped the end of her staff with his to signal that he was ready. Reza struck quickly, moving into his space and bringing the staff down hard. He pivoted and blocked her easily. 

She smiled. “That was a test.”

“Sure, General.” He unleashed a flurry of blows against her staff. She blocked it one handed and countered with three blows towards his head, forcing him back. He gritted his teeth and blocked, using her momentum against her to push her back. She was caught off guard for a and had to jump to avoid a sweep to her legs. 

Minutes flew by as they spared. Reza only gained as much ground as she lost, he wasn’t holding back. A small crowd had gathered around the mat. A clone fighting his General probably wasn’t a common sight around here. Second was starting to flag a bit, his footwork was getting sloppier. Reza favored the hyper aggressive form VII and whatever Vitran had taught Second was certainly a calmer, simpler style. She was wearing him out. 

As the fight became more meditation than combat for her, she realized her mistake. She had to win this fight to save face as a general, but not humiliate Second in front of the others. She fell back, making a show of missing a strike or two and having to dodge. A small smirk appeared on his face. Jeers went up from the crowd.

There, as she dodged, he stepped too close. She swept his legs with her staff. He went over backwards with a grunt. She grabbed the end of his staff and leveraged it out of his hands. Second looked up as she stood over him, both staffs in her hands. He was breathing hard.

The crowd of troopers clapped and hollered praise of insults. 

“Good try, Second, but you’re no Jedi!” Someone called.

Reza dropped the training weapons and leaned down to offer him a hand. For a moment, she was afraid that he would brush her off like he had on Dathomir. He took it, and he was smirking. She hauled him to his feet despite the slickness of both their hands.

“You’re good, Second,” she, said winded. “I’m actually out of breath.” 

He retrieved two towels from a bench while waving off the rest of the troopers. “I’m not you good, General. You’ll have to give me pointers sometime.” 

“Maybe I’ll even let you try my lightsaber, if you’re good.” She glanced over at him and was happy to see him chuckling. She dabbed the sweat from her face and neck. Second handed her her shirt and looked at her strangely.

“What’s on your mind, Second?”

“The men around here seem to think pretty highly of you,” he said. 

“Did Cliff tell you about the incident?” She wrapped her shirt around herself, trying not to disturb her braid and reveal her bad ear again. 

“They told me you flew a diplomatic boat previously carrying very important senators into a Sepie destroyer to save their lives while simultaneously disobeying orders from two of your superiors.” She eyed him warily, wondering where this was going.

“Tell me if I’m out of line, General,” he added hastily. 

“You’re not, I guess it’s fair for you to know why I ended up on this investigation to begin with.” She sat down on the bench and motioned for him to do the same.

“Lusha, in my opinion, made a reckless play to infiltrate a separatist ship and kill one of their top command. I warned him that he should just shoot the guy out of the sky, assassination isn’t really our thing after all, that he was just walking his men into a death trap. Neither Lusha or Republic command agreed with me. They were trapped and I was ordered to let them go.”

She looked over at him to make sure he was following still and continued. “He had thirty troopers with him. I didn’t think that was an acceptable loss so I went and got them. That’s the way I tell the story at least.”

“Why would you be stripped of command for that? I thought you Jedi could do, well...” He trailed off.

“Say it,” she said, teasing him slightly.

“I thought you Jedi could do whatever you wanted.” 

She laughed and the sound came out dry and harsh. “We’re not soldiers, we don’t have to follow orders really, but there are some lines you don’t cross. You can disobey republic command all you want, but the moment they think you had a emotional drive behind your actions, you’re in trouble.” 

“You’re very honest about this.”

Reza made a non-commital gesture. Maybe she was being too honest with him, but he was the only one who’d seemed interested in her side of the story, so she didn’t care.

“Anyway, neither the council nor the senate thought it was reasonable to force whichever senators into escape pods so I could wreck their very expensive ship. Something about me being too emotionally attached to Lusha, disobeying orders, and destroying valuable republic property.”

“I’ve noticed that General Taske seems uncomfortable around you.”

She snorted. “He can act uncomfortable if he wants. He and I disagree on the finer points of what soldiers are there for and how seriously one should take giving their life for the republic.”

“I’ll say.” He scratched the back of his head as if he was trying to make up his mind. “Cliff told me what you said to him after the whole thing.”

Reza looked down. Jedi didn't fight as a rule. Anger obviously rarely was employed in disputes. However, she and Lusha had gotten into it after his rescue. He was irate that she risked others and she was furious at him for the same reason. The only thing that had stopped their fight was the realization that they were fighting in front of Lusha’s remaining men. 

There was a beat where she and Lusha hand stared at the assembled troopers who didn’t know where to look. It wasn’t often that they saw Jedi frustrated, let alone in a shouting match. She hadn’t exactly been rational in that moment. The only thing she could think was how to hurt Lusha and make it up to these poor men who he’d dragged down with him on his hero quest. 

“You’re all people and don’t let him forget it.” Second echoed the words that she’d said to the beaten Cliff as she stormed off.

She looked back up at him. “So, does that mean you’re convinced I’m not a clone hater?”

He looked sheepish. “I’m sorry about that, General. I should have trusted you.”

“No, you shouldn’t have,” Reza said, not realizing the truth in the words until she said them. “I wasn’t letting you trust me. I let my feelings about the use of clones get in the way of being a real leader. I meant what I said back on the shuttle to Qumeria, I’m not out here to get you killed. I got too moral, it doesn’t matter where you came from, you’re here and we have to work together to catch this witch.” 

Second visibly relaxed, she felt the remaining tension between them evaporate as he began to speak again. “The point is, I’m with you, General. I have your back from here on out. We all do.” 

He sounded so earnest that Reza couldn’t help smiling. “I’ve got yours too, Second. All of yours.”

Reza made to walk away. “Wait, General,” Second stopped her. “Can I ask you something?”

“I don’t see why not.”

He had a strange expression on his face. Reza felt a strange nervousness coming off him. “How did you know it was me who commed you earlier?”

Reza shook her head, “I just listened. Do you really not know how different you all sound?”

She left him to ponder that answer, walking back to the training mat. She picked up one of the staffs. As she began to move through her forms like she was a padawan again, her mind raced. During the Talis fight, she’d thought of the men as support. That was wrong.

Widow squadron could shoot, perform medical care, slice, and perform battlefield medicine. What couldn’t they do? They couldn’t deflect blaster fire, or throw droids out of the way. Reza slid into form IV. It was made to deflect blaster fire from a saber wielder, but with a little modification and a double bladed weapon, it might be enough to protect five soldiers.


	13. Chapter 13

Reza entered the mess the next standard ship day, sweaty but pleased. She'd been demonstrating her technique to Jay, coaxing him into shooting around her. He’d showed an almost laser like focus that impressed her. She picked up a piece of fruit and a protein drink. 

Cliff waved her down from a table where Second, Niobe, and another trooper with bright red hair sat. The other three had their heads together conspiratorially. She took a seat next to Niobe. “What are you all whispering about over here?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.

Niobe nudged the red headed trooper beside her. “Tell General Ire what you saw.”

Reza leaned around Niobe to look the man in the eye. She noticed his left eye was scarred and clouded over. “What’s this about?” 

“The name’s Keen, Sir, pleasure to meet you.” He smiled charmingly. “Cliff told Niobe and me that you were looking for a traitor among us clones.”

Reza gave Second and Niobe a withering look at the same time. “You troopers gossip like you’re in a club on Coruscant and you padawans are no better. I ordered you to be discreet, remember.”

“I trust Keen, Reza,” Niobe said, putting one hand on her shoulder and the other on Keen’s. “He’s my friend, Reza, and he’s discreet enough.” 

Reza got the impression that Niobe relied on Keen’s discretion frequently. She shook her head, “Alright, Keen, what’s the news?”

Keen cocked an eyebrow. “Yes sir, I was assigned to clean the terminal level for various insubordinations and I noticed Yan was down there quite a bit, which wouldn’t be so odd from any of the enlistees, but who’s a clone have to contact?”

Reza frowned. “I never would have thought of that.”

“Exactly,” Keen said triumphantly. “I was going to keep my mouth shut about it until the Commander here told me it might be something more than some honey planetside.”

Niobe smiled at him. Reza leaned into the force, she could feel pride at his usefulness and a warm adoration towards Niobe, but no malice. She didn’t think he was lying, then again, Second had managed to lie to Lusha’s face earlier. 

“It’s a start,” Reza said. “Can you search his bunk and regular posts without drawing attention?”

“Second and I can do a surprise inspection while Keen and your men poke around,” Cliff suggested. 

“Good,” Reza said before lowering her voice. “Listen, I know I can ask you two to keep things quiet, but if Lush-er- General Taske tries to get involved, you’re not my subordinates, and I don’t want you to commit insubordination on my behalf, understand?”

Cliff and Keen shared a look before responding. “Yes, Sir.”

Niobe patted Keen’s shoulder. “If he does find out, I’ll say it was my idea. I do outrank you and my master is already disappointed in me for at least five other things, so it won’t be so bad.” 

Reza shook her head and bit into the fruit. Second watched her from across the table. “What are we looking for, here, General? You could just court martial him, you don’t need proof.”

Reza stopped mid chew. That honestly hadn’t occurred to her, but it made her sick just thinking about it. She swallowed. “Let’s not set a precedent of arresting other people’s men for no reason. I’m already on thin ice with Lusha to begin with and I don’t want that distrust to set us back to square one.”

“I understand, Sir,” he said, looking down. 

“Look for anything out of place. I’d expect extra credits or a coded data pad of some sort. Anything out of place for a trooper really.” 

“That’ll be easy,” Keen said ryley. “We aren’t allowed to have much.”

“Neither are we, another thing we have in common,” Niobe said, brightly.

Reza took another bite of fruit. The doors to the mess slid open and Lusha swept in with his typical straight backed fashion that Reza had only just started to think of as annoying. Cliff and Niobe whipped their heads around and wore almost identical expressions of younglings caught sneaking extra dessert. 

Lusha took in the five of them for a second. When he spoke his voice was icy, “Niobe, Captain Cliff, to me.”

Niobe and Cliff sprang to their feet. Niobe shot Reza an apologetic look and followed her Master out of the room. Keen ducked his head and slunk out one of the other doors as soon as Lusha excluded him from the orders. 

Reza and Second were left alone in the mess. She slid over so she was sitting directly in front of him. “Captain, I’m going to ask you as question you probably won’t want to answer, and you don’t have to, but I’ll ask one of the others if you won’t answer.”

He nodded slowly. “Yes, sir.”

“What’s going to happen to Yan if we find evidence that he is a traitor?” Reza kept her voice calm, but the uncomfortable feeling in her stomach she got when she thought too much about the clones was back.

Second looked uncomfortable. “Sir, it’s not really my place. Maybe you should ask General Ti or General Yoda.”

“I’m not asking another general, I’m asking you because I want to know what he has to lose.” She held her gaze steady as he tried to look everywhere but her face.

“Alright, I understand,” he said, deflating a bit. “If he’s court martialed and found guilty, he’ll be sent back to Kamino where they’ll determine what defect he has.”

“Defect?”

“Well, sir, we were made to follow orders and generally not betray the republic.” He grimaced. “That would be quite a design flaw wouldn’t it?”

A joke, and a dark one at that. “And after that?” she pressed. 

Second shrugged. “He’d either be kept for research or terminated. We try not to think too much about it.”

Reza didn’t, gasp, she didn’t cry out, she just nodded. “Thank you.” 

She couldn’t think about how complicit she was in whatever this was, only how to use the information. She spoke again, “Once we have the mole, we can use that to get him to talk. It’s dark, but that’s how these things tend to go.”

“With all due respect, we’re at war, things are already dark,” Second said, wearily.

She smiled at him. “I suppose you know that more than I do.”


	14. Chapter 14

Reza ran down the hallway, Tie and Gale on her heels. She vaulted a medical cart with ease and skidded around the corner, ignoring the protestations of the medical droid pushing it. She met Second and Cliff coming from the other direction in the middle. There was no sign of Yan. He’d run as soon as Cliff had called for inspection.

“General, did you see him go by?” Cliff asked breathlessly.

“No,” Reza responded. 

“Then where is he?” Second asked.

Reza closed her eyes and tried to focus. There were many, many beings in the Force around them. Lusha and Niobe were like beacons among the smaller lights that were the troopers. She opened her eyes. 

“There’s too many people and I don’t know him from anyone,” she said, frustrated. 

“Over here, General,” Tie called. He was pointing to an open ventilation duct.

She tapped her comm. “Wings, does the central ventilation duct let out near the hangar or the escape pods?”

“Has access to both,” the reply crackled through the comm. 

“Take Jay and head to the bay, tell Daalh and Laylan to lockdown the escape pods,” Reza ordered, already moving down the hallway towards the lift. 

“Sir!”

Reza reached the lift, the men were a few steps behind her. Gale reached her first. “Pods or hangar, General.”

She hit the screen for the hangar. “The hangar is the most obvious choice.”

“Waiting for the lift this time?” Second said, coming up beside her, smirking.

“I’m listening to your constructive criticism and not rushing ahead Captain,” she said smiling back. “Cliff, stay down here, Lusha’s going to be pissed and I don’t want you in the middle of that.”

The hangar was a mess, but Reza could sense Wings and Jay easily. She didn’t need to anyway, there was a crowd of people gathered near one of the transports. The troopers parted quickly for them revealing Jay, crouched on top of one of his brothers and pummeling him. Wings stood beside them watching with his arms folded. 

“That’s enough, Jay,” Reza said firmly. She nodded at Second who dragged his brother off the other man. 

The clone, who was most likely Yan, struggled to sit up as Second restrained Jay. Reza heard him whisper, “That’s enough brother.”

Reza walked over to the man on the floor. “Yan I presume?”

“What’s it to you.” His nose was bleeding and Jay seemed to have knocked out a tooth.

Reza kept staring at him calmly. “Wings, did anyone find anything?”

“Sir, he had a credit chit on his person that was loaded and we found a datapad with classified intelligence which I don't even know how he had access to.”

“Good,” she hesitated, usually she would usually read the basic rights guaranteed to Citizens of the republic, but that didn’t apply to military situations. Were clones even considered citizens? Instead she turned to Second, who’d calmed Jay. “Take him to one of the briefing rooms and make sure he stays there.”

Second and Gale hauled the bleeding Yan up from the floor and started to drag him out of the hangar. “Cooperate, and we’ll make it worth your while,” she said as the man passed.

“There’s nothing you have that I want, General,” Yan snapped. He made a sound in the back of his throat and spit in Reza’s face. She didn’t flinch, this wasn’t her first podrace.

Gale smacked him with his free hand. “Show some respect, scum.”

Reza waited until they were gone then wiped the spit off with her sleeve as she ordered the observers to disperse. Wings motioned to Jay to leave.

“Oh no you don’t,” Reza said, stepping in front of them, arms folded. “You are going to explain why you thought beating the shit out of our suspect was necessary.” 

Jay looked down and Wings rubbed the back of his neck. “I wasn’t the one doing the beating, Sir,” Wings said.

“Wings, get out of here, you’re in for a long lecture I got many times as a youngling about how inaction makes you complicit,” she said, shooing him away. 

“Yes, Sir,” Wings said and retreated. Jay stood there, head bent, looking sheepish.

“Jay, look at me, and tell me what happened,” Reza ordered, her tone coming out a little too harshly. This is why she’d never taken a Padawan.

He looked up into her face, she noticed for the first time that all the little scars that criss crossed his face resembled the lacerations on the bare side of her head, so they had come from glass. She remembered the pain of the cut rate medical droid picking every piece of class out of her scalp and internally cringed at the thought of that feeling on her whole face. 

“Sir, I just got so angry,” he said, voice quiet. “Brothers aren’t supposed to turn on the republic. I couldn’t stop myself, I’m sorry. I’ll accept any punishment you see fit.”

Reza deflated, chastising him for getting angry might be a tad hypocritical after the way she’d gone after Talis on the rooftop. She put a hand on his shoulder. “No punishment from me, just wait until I give the order to beat the crap out of someone, alright?”

He smiled a little. “Yes, Sir.”

“And don’t worry so much about one guy turning out to be a scumbag, even the Jedi turn out a bad one occasionally.”

“I’ll try, Sir.” He was looking down again, but she could sense that he was calmer.

She squeezed his shoulder and let go. “Why don’t you find Wings and get our shuttle ready, we should be out of here soon.”

“You think he’ll talk?”

Reza grinned. “I’ve been doing interrogations on worse criminals since I had my Padawan’s braid, we’ll be out of here by third shift.”


	15. Chapter 15

Reza sat down across from Yan. Someone had given him a cloth to wipe the blood off his face and he was pressing it to his nose. He looked at her stonily.

Reza leaned back and folded her arms. “You know who I am, Yan?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Of course I know who you are, General Ire, you’re the crazy harpy that made General Taske so angry.”

“And you know why I’m here?” Reza asked, ignoring the harpy comment. 

He shifted uncomfortably, “No.”

“You know,” Reza started, “Talis killed at least thirty of your brothers.” She started ticking names off on her fingers. “Stain, Twofor, Gutter, Hale…”

He smiled coldly. “You think you can get me to talk with that? Clones die every day, I don’t care and you don’t care.”

“Reasonable,” Reza said. She was trying to piece his motivations together in her head. She was used to having more time. “But you do care about credits.”

He leaned back and folded his arms, mirroring her. “I think I’m done talking now, send me back to Kamino with all the defective clones for termination.” 

“Alright, that can be arranged.” Reza let that hang in the air for a moment. She continued, “Or we could talk something far less fatal.” 

“What are you talking about, there’s only one way this ends for me,” he said, his composure cracking a little.

Reza leaned forward. “Man like you, in it for the credits, probably have your fingers in more than one operation.”

He narrowed his eyes, trying to figure out where she was going with this. Reza continued, “Someone with that kind of knowledge could be useful in Republic custody.”  
He glared at her. “What do I care about the Republic?” 

Reza shrugged and started to get up. “You don’t have to cooperate, Yan. I have all the resources of the Republic and the Jedi at my fingertips. I’m just doing this because I hate how the Republic treats you and your brothers.”

“Go kriff yourself,” he snapped. Reza merely frowned at him and left the room. Second and Tie were standing guard outside.

“Any luck General?” Gale asked.

Reza looked over at Second. “He doesn’t want to listen to me, which is to be expected. He doesn’t trust Jedi, the Republic, and he seems to have no love for his brothers, which is odd.” 

“He’s lying,” Second said. “You don’t go through the training we did without some kind of trust in your brothers.”

His usual dark expression was back. Reza had the strange compulsion to reach out and touch him in comfort which she resisted. “If you told me that at the beginning of the war I would have replied that human nature doesn’t work that way,” Reza mused.

“This isn’t human nature, Sir, it’s clone nature,” Second said.

Reza closed her eyes and screamed inside her head. “I know, Captain. That’s why you’re going to finish the interrogation. I need you to convince him to surrender to Republic custody. Imprisonment on Coruscant is more preferable to Kamino if he has the protection of the Jedi. He wants to live, I know it, he just doesn’t want to hear it from me.”

When she opened her eyes, Gale and Second were both staring at her with their eyebrows raised. “Kriff me, General, is that even an option?” Gale asked.

“It is for me, I might be a General now, but we’re treating this like a normal investigation of a Republic citizen, which means suspects don’t get terminated.” She turned to Second. “Can I trust you not to repeat Jay’s angry display?” 

He smirked a little. “Not from me, General. I have a cooler head.”

She cocked her head at him. “I guess there’s a reason why you’re a captain, Second. Now get in there, and may the Force be with you.” 

As Second turned to enter the makeshift interrogation room, the lift door opened and Lusha stormed out trailing Niobe and Cliff. There was a glint in his eye that Reza had never seen before, he was usually so in control. 

“I think you’ll need the Force more than I do,” Second said as he said, before he stepped into the interrogation room. 

Reza swallowed a smile and walked towards them, keeping a pleasant expression on her face. “Lusha, I was just looking for you, we need to contact Master Ti together immediately.”

“What’s the meaning of this Reza?” He asked, his voice so low Niobe leaned in to hear.

Reza sobered. “I’m on special order from the Council. I’m in a time crunch here, so I suggest you ask Master Ti if you don’t believe me rather than trying to argue with me in the middle of the hallway.”

They stared each other down for a moment. Niobe was slowly trying to become one with the wall and Cliff was standing stiffly with his eyes fixed on the ceiling. She didn’t have to guess that they’d both just gotten an earful from Lusha.

“So be it,” he said shortly. “But Master Ti will be informed that your ‘special orders’ interfered with my operation and undermined my authority.”  
Reza nodded and pushed past them to the lift.

Shaak Ti listened patiently to Reza’s explanation of the deal she wanted for Yan. Lusha stood beside her, lips pursed. Reza knew Ti’s soft spot for the men from her position on Kamino would make her agreeable to blatantly violating both military protocol and the Kaminoan’s contract.

“It will take some convincing, but that should be doable,” Master Ti said softly when Reza had finished. “If you’re so convinced that this clone will be useful to the war effort.” 

Lusha looked up sharply. “Master Ti, I disagree with Knight Ire. If we don’t keep punishments consistent, we risk more clones betraying the Republic. Yan should be made an example of.”

Reza looked at him, shocked. Had her friend’s compassion abandoned him completely? She was speaking before she could stop herself. “Lusha I’m conducting this investigation as a Jedi first and a general second. Full military discipline just isn’t an option if I want to find Talis quickly.”

“Knight Taske, I respect your authority over your battalion, but I suggest you differ to Knight Ire’s authority in this matter. Her rapid progress in this matter has proven that she is competent,” Master Ti said, her voice was calm as ever, but there was steel behind it. “I will send a Republic emissary to collect Yan. May the Force be with both of you.”

“And with you, Master Ti,” Reza said bowing. 

The feed cut out and Lusha turned on her instantly. “So you come onto my ship, lie to me, and attempt to turn my Padawan and captain against me?”

Reza took a step back inadvertently. “Lusha, I had my orders. I was going to tell you once we found the mole. Niobe figured it out on her own, you know how nosy she is. Can we just drop this stupid tension between us? You heard Master Ti, we both have jobs to do.”

He shook his head. “Reza, personal crusades only lead you down the path to the darkside. Your opposition to this war has made it impossible to be what we once were. Your skewed sense of duty to these clones will lead to your demise and I won’t be a part of that, I’ll be putting an end to this war.”

Reza’s cheeks burned. She wanted to yell at him or even hit him. Her comm beeped and Second’s voice said something about needing to see her, but she wasn’t really listening. Her eyes still searched her friend’s for anything but all she found was calm and resoluteness.

“Fine,” she said after a moment. “Let’s see who falls first, me with my so called attachment or you with your ends-justify-the-means garbage.” 

With that, Reza turned and walked out of Lusha’s quarters. Part of her wanted to dwell in the loss of her oldest friend. She took a breath and let that part of her go. It hurt, it always did to leave someone you cared about behind. But she wouldn’t be a Jedi if she couldn’t let go. 

Instead she latched onto the part of herself that knew that she was close to her goal. There was something else too, deeper down. Lusha may be lost, but there were seven people counting on her and the new found urge to protect them was stronger than her loss and stronger even than her need to capture Talis.

 

Second met her in front of her quarters. Reza could sense the excitement pouring off of him from the lift. “Sir, Yan says Talis is at her base, preparing to go after her next target. He’ll give up the coordinates once he’s in Republic custody.”

“Good,” Reza said trying to focus on him and not the still smoldering wound in her heart. “Tell the men to get some rest, once we get the location, things are going to start happening very quickly.” 

Second nodded, turned to go, but stopped. “Sir, let me know if this isn’t my place, but General Taske looked pretty upset back there.”

“You can ask me if I’m alright, Captain, it’s not against regulations,” she said, a little more sharply than intended. “At least I think it’s not against regulations, I haven’t read them all,” she said quickly, taking pity on him. 

He smirked, an expression that Reza was beginning to understand was just the way he smiled. “Are you alright, General?”

“More or less, just ready to end this case with as little pain as possible,” she said, deciding to be honest with him. “And you, you just had to interrogate one of your brothers. Are you holding up?” 

He looked a little taken aback at the question. “I’m not going to lie to you, I’ve never personally seen one of the brothers turn. It’s…. difficult.” He took a deep breath. “But I’m the captain, so I’ll keep it together, Sir.” 

There was a moment of somewhat awkward silence. Reza made a decision and opened the door to the room.

“Come in, Captain,” she said.

Second hesitated, peering past her into the small cabin, then followed. Reza dug out the datapad with the case notes from her first encounter with Talis and handed it to him. “You wanted to know why I acted the way I did on Qumeria, here it is.”

“Sir, you don’t-” he started to protest but Reza held up a hand to silence him.

“Second, I need you and the others to trust me completely. Let me explain myself.”

She sat on the cot as he leaned on the small desk and read the file. She watched his face, watching his expression go from from curiosity to fear. He set the datapad delicately on the desk when he was done and looked up at her. 

“General, I’m trying to understand,” he said helplessly.

“It’s the reason I pushed off her mind control when Amori and most other Jedi couldn’t.” Reza looked off into the distance, finding it suddenly hard to look him in the eye, and continued, “Talis kept me in that basement and tried to overrun my mind. She kept going on and on about how no Jedi could resist her no matter how much we controlled our wills and emotions. That was how I knew how to beat her, by not being in control, by flooding my mind with anger, to fight fire with fire. It worked, but I was almost consumed by my rage.”

“Why did you show me?” Second’s voice cracked a bit. “I thought you were trying to get us to trust you and now you show me that you could turn on us?” 

Reza felt his negative emotions wash over her. He was overwhelmed and upset almost to the point he’d been on the shuttle. Maybe this had been a mistake. 

“Don’t worry, I’m in control. When I attacked my master, I’d been without food or sleep and had been physically tortured for five days straight. I didn’t know who I was anymore.” Her voice was rising, she took a deep breath and stood up. “I showed you because you deserved to know. She tried to break my mind again and I resisted the only way I knew how. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you that might happen. You may have been raised to follow orders, but that doesn’t mean you have to do so blindly. Can you try to understand?”

Second looked into her eyes, his face contorted in indecision. “Gale says you saved him, letting Talis get away.”

“I did.”

He stared at her, hard. His eyes were a warm brown and absolutely penetrating. Very few people had the nerve to look at a Jedi like that. Reza liked it. 

“I’ve never known a Jedi who would share something like that,” he said finally.

“I need-” She stopped. That wasn’t the right. “I want you to trust me, you deserve that much.”

“I do trust you,” he said slowly, as if it was just occuring. “And I’m sorry that happened to you. It’s horrible.”

“Thank you. I should tell the others.”

His eyes grew large. “General, that’s not a good idea. The others wouldn’t understand.”

“You did,” she said, confused. 

“I’m your second in command, it’s part of my job to understand you. They need to trust you enough to follow orders, but they don’t need things to be more complicated than they already are,” he said, earnestly trying to explain this to her. “I know you aren’t big into chain of command, but they need a general, not a best friend.”

Reza thought about it for a moment, and understood. “They have have to trust you like you trust me, but I have to be aloof and competent.”

“Exactly,” he said, visibly relaxing.

There was another awkward silence. Reza sat back down on the bed. “Thank you for the advice, Captain. Go get some rest, that’s an order.”

“Yes, Sir.” Reza didn’t think a salute could be sarcastic until she saw the one he gave as he backed out of her room.


	16. Chapter 16

The space battle around Ryloth was fierce. The Separatists controlled almost the entire planet and the Republic had just launched a massive counter attack to reclaim it. It was the perfect place for Talis to capture Republic higher ups.

Yan fed Talis information on what Generals were on planet, specifically the movements of Master Di and Reza’s own former Master Kalere. As if Reza needed another reason for haste in. The transmission pinged off a terminal deep in the forest in the middle of separatist territory. 

Reza kept a hand firmly on the back of Wing’s seat as they weaved and dodged in between star cruisers and fighters. Behind her, Daalh was holding onto her wife’s hand for dear life. As they broke atmosphere, Reza sighed and sat back.

“You could have been a fighter pilot if you wanted, Wings,” she said.

“If I was a fighter pilot, no one would be able to appreciate my flying skills first hand,” he said and Reza could feel his grin. “I’d get back there, we’ll be at the drop point in ten minutes.”

“Right,” Reza said, watching the forests of Ryloth spread out underneath them. “Stay sharp, if you can’t get back to pick us up, don’t be a hero.”

“No promises, General.” He flashed her a wicked grin. “Oh and General, I think it would destroy my brother if another General died on his watch so try not to do that.”  
“No promises, Wings.”

She headed to the back of the shuttle. Laylan was helping Daalh strap her armor on. Reza went over to them. “Have I told you that you two are the best friends anyone has ever had?” 

Laylan smiled. “You’re saying that like we wouldn’t have stormed this compound on our own for what she did to you.”

“What do you think, hand cannon or the big girl?” Daalh asked, showing them two big scary blasters.

“Take both, you never know,” Laylan said. She was strapping the Ryyk blade she rarely used, but was deadly with, to her hip and her stun baton to the other.   
Reza reached out and clasped each of their hands. “Just like old times, but with more droids and fewer slavers, right?”

Daalh squeezed her hand. “And with more people for my little Jedi to worry about keeping alive.”

Reza shook her head, even though Daalh had guessed what she was thinking. Her mind was surprisingly clear for the eve of what most likely would be the final confrontation with Talis. The only thing that bothered her was the safety of her men. They were prepared to die, but she wasn’t prepared to let them.

Reza let go of her friend’s hands and turned to her men. They had their helmets on, so she couldn’t see their expressions. The four men turned to look at her, they seemed quieter than usual, even Tie wasn’t talking. It was time to be like one of the Jedi Council, cool under pressure and inspiring. 

“I know this is happening fast, which is never good, but you’re ARC troopers, you’re the best.” She paused to make sure that sank in and continued, “Stick together and stay close to me unless you’re ordered. I can block almost anything. I’ll keep you covered if you do the blasting, am I understood?”

“Yes, Sir,” the chorus came back to her.

“Stay sharp out there, and don’t kill her. I know she killed your general and your brothers, but the information she has could save more lives. Are we ready?”

As they gave their assent, Reza closed her eyes and reached out to each member of her team in the Force. Laylan and Daalh were familiar she could feel them anywhere. The clones were as distinct as any other being. She memorized each signature, burning it into her awareness so she wouldn’t lose track of any of them in the fight. It was difficult and took concentration. Reza knew Jedi who could tell you everyone who was in the Temple at any given time, but she’d never been that strong in the mental side of Force abilities. Tracking her men this way might cause her to lose focus, but she’d rely on them to cover any weakness her protection created. 

The shuttle lowered as they approached the dropsite. The doors opened to reveal the treetops of the dense Ryloth forrest. Beside her, Second scanned the forest.  
“Anything?” she asked, practically yelling over the wind.

“Extreme heat signature two clicks East, General,” he called back. “Probably a bunker or base of some sort. 

“We head for that then,” she said.

The shuttle reached the lowest it could go in the dense forest. Reza checked that her saber was firmly attached to her belt and jumped for a hole in the trees. She heard the jetpacks roar to life behind her as she let the Force guide her fall. She fell through the trees into a roll. The others landed behind her with various levels of gracefulness. 

Tie came up beside her, the blue grid pattern over his helmet glinting in the sun. There were bits of silver painted along some of the lattice. “Do you always leave shuttles that way?” he asked, bemused. 

“Sometimes,” Reza said as she peered out into the thick forest.

Second walked up and swatted his brother on the back of the head, “She said to stay sharp, Tie. Stop mouthing off.” Reza glanced at him. He’d warmed up but he’d probably never be one for banter.

Reza reached out with the Force. Talis’s dark presence was far away, but it was there, almost hidden by the death and sorrow that sat over the entire planet like a blanket. “She’s definitely out there,” she said to the group at large. “Let’s end this.”

The group fanned out behind her as they made their way towards Talis’s base. The base was no more than a small metal and concrete shack. It would have been completely innocuous if it wasn’t for the two shiny droideka standing guard in front of the door. Lalyan lowered her goggles and hummed. 

“Most of the base is underground, which might prove problematic. Only one way in or out,” Laylan said.

Daalh chuckled, “Well that means Talis won't be leaving either.”

Reza zeroed in on the blast doors. “Tie, Laylan, can you slice those from outside?”

“Unlikely,” Layla's replied. “There’s no outside panel. This place is locked down tight.”

“Thought’s Captain?” She asked turning to Second.

“Sir, they're going to know we’re here the moment we take out those droideka, we should use that to put the battle on our terms,” he said.   
Reza shook her head. “They're going to lock this place down tight when they know we’re here.”

“With all due respect, General. Talis is an assassin, not not a tactician, she'll come out and finish you if she thinks she can win.” She couldn't see Second’s face but she could feel the determination pouring off of him. 

“Using me as bait again?” she smiled at him. “My specialty.”


	17. Chapter 17

Reza leapt out of the tree she was crouched in and into the clearing and activated her lightsaber. She made it a few meters before the droideka opened fire on her. She deflected the blaster fire steadily as an alarm started to sound. The two droids advanced, forcing her back towards the treeline. She saw a glint of white armor and one of the droidica’s head exploded. The other followed, a blade poking through its chest. The droideka fell, revealing Laylan and Tie. 

Laylan boosted Tie onto the roof of the compound and followed him up. The blast doors slid open and a cadre of attack droids came running out. Reza was suddenly flanked by Daalh, Second, and Gale. Deflecting blaster fire from them proved slightly difficult, but Reza managed. Second stuck closest to her, and his aim was flawless. 

Four more droideka rolled out from behind the dwindling first wave and attempted to flank them. 

“I’m about to do something stupid,” Daalh yelled to Reza across the clearing.

“I’ve got my hands full,” Reza yelled back, extending a hand just in time to push a blast away from Gale’s helmet.

Out of the corner of her eye, Reza saw Daalh rip the chest plaiting off a fallen droid and use it as a shield to charge one of the droideka head on. She lodged her foot between the droid’s legs and leveraged herself on top of its body. The droid started to spin and shoot wildly.

Reza saw an opening and ran at one of the other Droideka reaching out with the Force to throw it into a third. The blast shields flickered and the two damaged droids were torn apart by blaster fire from Gale and Second. Daalh ripped the head of the droideka she was riding with a grunt. 

As Reza turned to face the final Droideka, a dark presence in the Force overwhelmed her. “Fall back, she’s coming.” she yelled, gesturing wildly.

Reza felt the air leave her lungs as she was thrown back by a wave of dark energy. She slammed into a nearby tree and felt her ribs crack from the impact. Talis came out of the bunker at a run. Daalh, who hadn’t taken cover, tried to grab her, but was thrown to the side. Talis was on top of Reza with a knife to her throat before she had a chance to react. Reza’s lightsaber deactivated as it spun out of her grasp.

“You Jedi don’t know when to stop,” Talis snarled.

“No, we don’t,” Reza replied, and let her emotions flow through her. 

Her vision became sharp and clear as she effortlessly threw Talis away and sprang to her feet. 

“General!” Second yelled and tossed her her saber. 

Reza’s pulse pounded in her ears as she focused in on Talis. She registered that Tie and Laylan had disappeared from the roof and Gale hauling the injured Daalh to cover. Her anger had dulled her awareness last time, but now her feelings only heightened them. She’d practiced form VII most of her life, but hadn’t really understood it into all those feelings that fueled it were focused clearly on protecting her people. 

Second was the only one left exposed. The remaining droidika turned towards him, but he’d pulled his staff and dodged out of the way of it’s fire.

Talis was only focused on Reza, she rushed at her, staff drawn with murder in her eyes. Reza met her head on, the saber sending sparks flying as it connected with the staff. Their faces were so close, Reza could see the sharp points of her teeth. Reza pushed back with all of her strength. Talis’s feet slid on the forest soil. Reza deactivated her lightsaber, sending Talis falling backwards. Reza stabbed downward, but Talis rolled out of the way and back onto her feet. 

Reza felt it before she saw it. A blaster bolt flew under her raised arm as Talis tried to rush her again. It caught her in the side and she cried out in pain, stumbling back towards the compound.

Another blast caught Talis in her armored shoulder as Second landed a shot from behind the droideka he’d taken down. Reza ran at her again, but she recovered and pulled something off of her belt. Too late, Reza saw that it was flash grenade. She got two steps towards Second before it went off. She was disoriented, even the strength from her feelings wavered as she tried to reach out into the Force. 

As her senses returned to her, her fears were confirmed. Talis had Second’s arms behind his back and there was something very wrong.

“Don’t try anything, or I’ll take this knife out and let him bleed out in front of you,” Talis said. Reza’s already weak hearing was gone, but Talis’s words echoed deeply in the Force. 

Reza deactivated her saber and held up her hands. She could see the hilt of the knife sticking out of the gap in his armor where his kidneys were. She felt his pain, it made her angry.

“General, kill her, stab through me, just kill her,” Second was yelling. 

Reza shook her head, “Second, I’m not going to let you die here.” 

Talis laughed and dragged Second back through the blast doors. “I thought you were different Jedi, but you’re actually weaker than your fellows. The last one they sent after me had no such qualms with sacrificing your meat droids.”

The doors closed and they both disappeared. Reza ran forward, the anger pounding in her skull, drowning out her connection to the Force. She cried out. A hand appeared on her shoulder. Daalh, Gale, and Jay were behind her. Daalh leaned on her, she looked bad and had crusted blood around her mouth and nose. 

“Not to sound like your master, but I don’t know if being angry is helping at this point,” Daalh said slowly. She was right.

Reza took a deep breath and thought about her men and all of their lost brothers. She wasn’t the only one Talis had ever hurt. She felt the anger flow out of her as she let go. Protectiveness welled up inside her, taking the anger’s place. She also knew protectiveness could be just as dangerous. 

She reached out to the Force and it came to her easily. The blast doors creaked open as she pulled them apart. Inside, she could feel Talis and Second, but Laylan and Tie were there too. At least they’d managed to sneak in like the plan called for. Reza braced herself mentally as she forced the doors back into their housings. 

Talis hadn’t gotten far, she and Laylan were trading blows in front of the next set of blast doors which were locked down tight. Tie had a panel open and was rooting around inside. Second was lying discarded off to the side of the room. 

Reza started to run as Talis got the better of Laylan and shocked her with her staff. Laylan cried out and collapsed on the floor. Talis turned towards Tie as Reza slammed into her. The force of impact sent them both flying to the ground with Reza on top. She didn’t bother with a saber, punching Talis in the face at her full strength with the Force behind it. Talis’s head snapped back. Reza hit her again.

Suddenly, pain flared in her back was on fire. She looked down, Talis’s hand was raised. Laylan’s fallen blade was floating near her, covered in her own blood. The pain flared up threatening to make her scream, but Reza let it go. She looked down at Talis who looked battered and bloody. 

“You really don’t know when to give up do you?” Reza asked and punched her one last time. Talis’s eyes rolled back into her head. 

Reza scrambled off of Talis’s unconscious. “Jay, get some bindings on her and grab the sedatives from Gale. I really don’t want her to wake up in transit.”   
“Yes sir,” Jay said quietly, unclipping the cuffs from his belt. 

Reza turned to Laylan. Daalh was shaking her awake gently as Reza knelt next to them. “Are you two alright? Nothing life threatening?”

“My pride’s hurt more than anything, she took me down in less than thirty seconds,” Daalh grumbled.

“And I was wearing charge diffusers under my clothing because I’m not stupid,” Laylan said a little woozily. She looked up at her friend, slightly singed, but in one piece. “Go check on Second, I know you want to.”

Reza nodded and turned where Second was being cared for by Gale. He was on his side as Gale was inspecting the wound on his back. Reza removed his helmet to reveal his face, pale and slick with sweat. Most of his hair had come loose of his bun and his eyes were closed.

“Hey, Second, stay with me,” she said, snapping her fingers in his face. His eyes fluttered open. 

“General?” his voice was so weak she had to lean forward to hear him. 

“Sir, I'm going to take the knife out and stop the bleeding with a bacta patch,” Gale called. “Hang in there brother.”

Reza took Second’s hand in one of hers and smoothed his hair back with the other, trying to soothe him. “I'm not letting you die here.”

Second cried out as the knife was removed and his grip on her hand tightened. He finally passed out from the pain just as Gale was finishing up. “He needs more treatment than I can give him. I stopped the bleeding, but there may be internal damage I can’t fix in the field,” Gale said grimly.

“Let’s get out of here. Tie, seal the base,” Reza ordered. “We’ll send someone else out here when the fighting dies down.”

“Way ahead of you General,” Tie said gesturing to the panel he’d worked on. He was helping Laylan support Daalh. 

“Good,” Reza said as she lifted Second’s limp form onto her shoulder. Her back complained at the new weight and she felt her own warm blood soaking through her shirt. 

“What the kriff?” Gale said as she turned towards the exit. “General, you’re bleeding pretty badly. That cut’s going to be a problem if you don’t let me look at it.”

Reza smiled at him, the pain was drowned out by the rush of knowing that they’d won and the relief that no one had died. “What’s one more scar?” she asked as she carried her captain out into the Ryloth twilight just as Wings set the shuttle down in the clearing.


	18. Chapter 18

The entire Jedi Council was present this time, whether in person or over the holocom. Reza stood in the center of the room, steadily holding Master Windu’s gaze as the council read her report. 

“Talis has been expertly holding her tongue during questioning,” Master Billaba said, a hint of frustration in her voice. “But at least she isn’t out there killing our people. That clone you brought in was much more willing to spill secrets in exchange for a standard prison sentence.”

“You completed your mission with the speed and precision you once showed in your role as investigator,” Master Gallia added with a smile. 

“With respect, Masters,” Reza started, already kicking herself for speaking out of turn. “Credit for our success belongs to my team as much as it does to me.” 

Master Windu leaned back in his chair. “A team only functions as well as its leader, and your team performed quite remarkably. That’s why the council has decided to assign the ARC-trooper squadron to you permanently, provided you no longer hold objections to working with clones.”

Reza blinked in surprise. She hadn’t known what to expect after Talis’s capture, but being given Widow Squadron for good had not even occurred to her. There were so many things wrong. She still objected to working with clone. She hadn’t lead so much as stumbled around trying to be her old lone hunter self until the others guided her. The reflexive “no” was on the tip of her tongue. 

“Yes,” she said hurriedly. The face of each man flashed through her mind. Who would protect them if not her? “Of course I’ll take Widow Squadron.”

“Well, that’s good to hear,” Master Kenobi said cheerily. “My Commander Cody tells me they won’t stop raving about you.” 

Reza suppressed a sigh. That was a relief, at least. They’d reversed their opinion on her so quickly, when she felt like she didn’t deserve it. But, she had to admit, she didn’t know how she would have reacted to their rejection.

“We’ll have your next assignment for you when your captain has recovered,” Master Ti said, and she was smiling too. 

Reza bowed. “Thank you for letting me redeem myself, Masters.”

“The room, give us please.” Master Yoda had been silent for the entire meeting but he spoke now. “Speak with Knight Ire alone, I wish to.”

Master Yoda had always been patient and kind when she was a youngling, but as an adult, there was an awe about him that was intimidating. This effect was exemplified when the rest of the council left without question. Reza tried to calm herself, so Yoda would at least have to work to read her.

“Sit,” Yoda said, once they were alone. He gestured to the recently vacated seat beside him.

Reza sat, knowing better than to rush the ancient Jedi by speaking. After sitting in silence for a moment he started again. “A great protectiveness, I sense in you. Careful with that instinct, you must be.” 

Reza frowned, “Master, how is protectiveness wrong? I thought we were supposed to protect all life in the galaxy.”

“All life, yes.” Yoda looked straight into Reza’s eyes with a gaze so penetrating, she thought he must be able to see through her. “Protect your men before others, do not. Put your men’s lives ahead of your duty, do not.” 

Reza cast her eyes downward. She remembered Second’s face, pale and contorted with pain and Gale’s screams as he went over the side of the building on Qumeria.   
“It will be difficult for me, Master,” Reza said, after a moment. 

His face softened, giving him even more wrinkles than before. “Forsake your men, I am not asking you to. Wary of attachment, I am asking you to be. Your greatest weakness as a Jedi, your attachment is.” 

“I know, Master,” Reza said solemnly. It didn’t surprise her that Yoda knew that about her, a relatively anonymous knight. He knew everything and everyone. “I won’t forget my training. Thank you for the advice.”

“Rest, you deserve, Knight Ire. A great strike against the Separatists, you are responsible for,” Yoda said, sliding off of his chair. 

His brief praise welled up inside of her as she left the council chambers and went off into the temple to find her friends. It was only later that night, as she curled up in her small temple room, that the doubt crept in. 

The Jedi created and used the clones for their own ends. Just because she genuinely liked those people, didn’t make her feelings about their situation any different. If she did not do everything in her power to protect them, she would be complicit in that exploitation. 

She rolled over on her side. It was cruel really, putting the lives of these people in her hands, making them fight and live side by side, and then asking her not grow attached. What would lead to the darkside faster, exploiting these men in a war she didn’t belong in, or attachment those men who were constantly in danger?


	19. Epilogue

Second

Second stared at his comm and tried to work up the courage to make the call he wanted to. It wasn’t that he was intimidated by her, he just didn’t know if General Ire would understand what he wanted. Jedi didn’t seem to grieve, at least not openly.

Then he remembered the way she’d looked at him after she’d showed him what Talis did to her. She’d seemed completely oblivious to how to treat a subordinate, but in that moment, she’d sought his approval like an equal.

She picked up almost immediately. “Captain, are you up and about already?”

“Yes Sir, bacta tank fixed me up.”

“Good to hear,” she said, brightly. There was a commotion from her end and he heard laughter. “Be quiet I'm talking to my captain.”

Though he was currently alone in the captain’s barracks, he still flushed. “I can call back later, General, it's not important.”

“I have time, what's on your mind?”

Second took a deep breath. “Would it be possible for me to come see the temple?”

“I don’t see why not. I mean there’s certain places you can’t go but I can give you a tour if you really want to. It’s honestly super boring.” She was rambling, which was strange to hear after her clipped, direct conversations in the field. “Anything in particular you want to see?”

The door to the barracks slid open and Captain Rex of the 501st came in, sweaty from a workout. He inclined his head towards Second. 

“Sir, I’d prefer to discuss it in person.” He didn’t think Rex was the type to gossip, but this was a personal matter he didn’t want to explain in front of him.

“Alright,” General Ire replied, slowly and with a little confusion. “You have a dress uniform right? Wear that and meet me at the south entrance in two hours.”   

“Yes, Sir.” He disconnected the call. Rex stretched out on his bunk as Second started changing. 

“I heard your squadron sniffed a traitor out of the 424th,” Rex said casually.

“Yeah, this asshole was selling classified information around. Didn’t even care who died because of it.” Second remembered Yan’s cold eyes. “Completely defective that one, no love for the rest of us.”

“Cody and I had to deal with one as well,” Rex said, rolling onto his side. “We had no reason to suspect Slick to be anything but loyal. He framed his own men and started spouting all this bantha crap about us being slaves to the Republic and whatnot. Total nonsense about how he was sabotaging the war effort for his brothers.”

Second thought back to General Ire who had said something similar. He’d thought she was just putting on moral superiority as General Virtan had said Jedi did sometimes. Hearing that a brother had picked up that point of view was troubling. 

“What’s worse, betraying your brothers for credits or because you think you’re helping them?” Second mused.

Rex shook his head. “They’re the same, anyone who isn’t with us is against us.” 

Second nodded, keeping his opinion on the matter to himself.

 

General Ire was sitting on the bottom step of the massive South entrance. She waved him over and got to her feet. It was strange to see her in Jedi robes after she’d worn just a jacket and pants out in the field. Her hair was free of its braid and covered the shaved side of her head. The black waves framed her face and made her look younger and less severe. 

“Captain,” she called when he was close enough. “You look so much better than the last time I saw you.” 

She was smiling, a wide, genuine smile and her posture was loose. The temple was her home after all.

“Are you healed up, General? Gale told me you got cut up after I went down and you wouldn't let him treat you,” Second said. He was smiling too, her good mood was infectious. “And he may or may not have told me that you collapsed in the shuttle from blood loss after carrying me back.”

She feigned shock. “I’m court martialing him for insubordination.”

General Ire was standing in front of him and he realized that, this relaxed, she didn’t seem to tower over him so much. She was still bigger than him, but only by an inch or so and maybe a dozen pounds. The way she held herself while they were working made her seem larger than life.

“So, what do you want to see first?” She asked, brightly. “We’ve got gardens, a mess hall, oh and the archives but don’t be too loud in there or Master Nu will come for your life.”

“General,” he started, trying to fight growing discomfort. “When General Vitran died, they had a ceremony here, in the temple, that I didn’t….” he trailed off, unable to finish the thought. “I just wondered if there was some way I could say goodbye.”

She sobered almost immediately. “Kriff me, they didn’t even let you go to the ceremony. Of course I’ll take you to the memorial hall, come on.”

Second followed her up the stairs and into the temple. Temple wasn’t the right word, he decided. The building was strangely reminiscent of the facilities on Kamino, though less sterile and more elaborate. He kept his head down and tried to look as unassuming as possible. Being under the scrutiny of one Jedi was bad enough. The General nodded and waved to several people but kept them moving through the labyrinthine temple at a steady pace.

Finally they arrived at a pair of massive doors made of dark stone and carved intricately. Two of the hooded and masked temple guards stood to attention. The General bowed low to them, rose and turned to give Second an encouraging nod. The two guards flanked her and the three of them them reached out and opened the door with what he assumed was the Force. 

It was impressive but he couldn’t help but notice it was just another way the Jedi blocked themselves off from others. He immediately suppressed that traitorous thought and followed General Ire inside.  

The room was huge, dull brass plaques lined the wall all the way around and up into the high ceiling. Second stared, mouth open at the grand scope of it all.

“We don’t mourn like others do,” she said softly beside him. “We know that those we lose are always with us in the Force. But we keep this room to help ease the pain of not having them here with us physically, and for those who were close to Jedi to mourn them.”

She walked across the room to a part of the wall where it looked like more plaques were being added. “There’s his,” she said pointing to a plaque a few inches above their heads.

Second looked up and saw it. It was a simple thing. All it said was Elias Vitran in simple letters, and smaller under it Jedi Master. Those four words were all that was left of Vitran, his General, his friend, and, well he hadn’t really admitted that part to himself yet. He reached out, running his fingers along the letters and remembered. 

Vitran passed the quarterstaff to him. It felt heavy and clumsy in his hands as he flipped it over experimentally a few times. 

“I don’t know about this, General,” he said apprehensively.

“It’ll suit you, trust me,” he said, smiling. “Your fighting style is far too elegant for just blasters.”

“Alright, alright.” Second shook his head and attempted to copy Vitran’s stance. 

Vitran chucked, he had a warm deep laugh that made warmth spread across Second’s chest and neck. “No, no, your stance is all wrong,” Vitran scolded. “Here, let me…”

Vitran adjusted Second’s grip on the staff. Vitran touched his leg. “Move this one forward, just like that.” He stepped back and made a show of inspecting Second. “There you go, almost as good as me on my first lesson, though I was a bit younger than you are now.”

“You’d be surprised,” Second said, letting himself smirk a little. Vitran smiled back and his warm brown eyes twinkled softly and Second could still feel his general’s hands on his body.

Second snapped out of his memory. He raised a hand to his cheek, it came away wet. 

He looked around and saw General Ire near the door looking at some of the plaques, arms folded. Second took one last look at Vitran’s plaque and turned away. It was painful, but there was nothing else left of Vitran. He’d thought this would bring him closure, but he just felt empty. 

General Ire looked over at him, eyebrows raised. 

“I’m ready to go,” Second said quietly. 

When they were back in the hallway he stood next to his General, unsure of what to do with himself. She’d been respectful of his space in the hall, but outside he felt slightly uncomfortable. Maybe, he’d revealed too much.

“Hey, Second, are you doing anything right now?” She asked, looking at him out of the corner of her eye.

“No, Sir, technically I’m still on medical rest,” he replied, trying to get a read on what she wanted to do.

“Good, follow me. I want to show you something.” General Ire set off down a side hallway forcing Second to half jog to catch up with her. 

After a few minutes they came to a small, nondescript doorway in a deserted part of the temple. General Ire opened it to reveal a tiny courtyard facing out over the city. They were fairly high up, but there was no wind. He could see massive buildings that were many, many clicks away, casting long shadows in the afternoon light. 

General Ire sat on the only bench, her back to one of the small trees, and her feet drawn up on the bench. She inclined her head and Second sat down on the other side, perpendicular to her, looking out over the city, careful not to let his leg touch her feet. It was difficult to look General Ire straight in the face, as her green eyes were normally narrow and penetrating. 

“Um, if I may General, what are we doing here?” He asked, though he already had an idea.

He saw her shrug out of the corner of his eye. “I just thought we’d talk a little. We’re stuck with each other for the foreseeable future, and I’ve realized I know almost nothing about any of Widow Squadron, but you in particular.” 

Second felt the back of his neck heating up. He hated this part, all civilians and Jedi asked questions like this at some point. He’d almost preferred General Amori, who’d been so focused on their mission, that she hadn’t bothered. 

“Well, there isn’t much about me to know,” Second replied shortly. Vitran would have scolded him for saying that but General Ire just leaned her head back and smiled.

“Alright, if you insist,” she said. “I’m not holding you here, you’re free to go if you want.”

Second thought about getting up and leaving, he sensed the General wouldn't stop him or hold it against him, as she apparently didn’t hold his previous outbursts against him. But she had a point about them being stuck with each other, and he was curious to see what kind of person she was outside of the stress of the field. He remained seated.

“This used to be my favorite place to meditate or nap when I was younger,” she said, in an almost dreamy voice. “Don’t get me wrong, I love the Temple, but there’s always something happening and sometimes you don’t want to be in the middle of it.”

Second remembered the sheer amount of noise his brothers made when they were younger. “Kamino was the same way, I used to volunteer for gear inventory duty just to get away. Wings thought I was sucking up, but I really just wanted to read in the supply closets.”

“So you like to read?” she asked sharply. 

Second swore internally, suddenly remembering that General Ire was an investigator and wouldn’t miss anything. “Don’t look at me like that, I saw you reading in your downtime on the  _ Brazen _ ,” she said, laughing a little.

“You caught me, Sir,” he said, smiling. “I enjoy reading. Some of us spar or mod weapons to blow off steam, I read.”

“Good for you, I swore off the habit after my last lesson in the temple. All they let us read were treatises by ancient blowhards who debated whether eating dessert would lead us to the darkside. No offence if you like that stuff.”

Second couldn’t help but laugh, imagining her giving the same speech to a stony faced Jedi Master. “No, I can’t say I’ve read anything like that.”

“What do you like to read then?” She asked casually. 

Second rubbed his neck and looked down. “Oh, military history,” he lied. The others found the trash he read hilarious and he was worried that she might too.

“Your hobby is just studying to be better at your job?” she asked. He couldn’t tell if she was actually incredulous or teasing.

“Well do you have any hobbies?” he asked, trying his own hand at teasing.

He could feel her eyes boring into him. There was a beat. “Fine, you win.”

He finally looked at her and smiled. She smiled back, and he got that feeling again, that she saw him as an equal. Or maybe even a friend. 

They spent the afternoon talking idly about inconsequential things, both watching the chaos of Coruscant unfold beneath them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this to the very end. Again, this fic was my labor of love and I'm glad to see others enjoyed it. This will most likely be the first fic in a series about these characters as they are, hands down, my favorite OCs and I get endless joy and inspiration from them.


End file.
